Health and life cover for family offices — an independent second opinion
Not a structure. A sediment.
Every policy was sensible when it was bought. Together, across households and countries and the years they were arranged in, they are not a plan — and nobody has read all of them at the same time, because that has never been anybody's job.
Read side by side, which is the part nobody has done.
The work is less about finding a policy than about reading everything that already exists at once — across households, countries and the years they were bought in.
Across households, not across headcount
A family office is not buying a benefits programme. It is holding exposure across several households, often in different countries, sometimes in different generations — and the cover was usually assembled one decision at a time, by different people, in different years.
Where the arrangements stop agreeing with each other
Two policies from two countries, bought for good reasons, that overlap in one place and leave a gap in another. Nobody has read them side by side, because reading them side by side is a specific job and it has never been anybody's.
What moves, and what does not
The question that decides most of it: which of these arrangements survive a move, a change of residence, or a principal spending more of the year somewhere else. Portability is rarely on the summary and is frequently the whole answer.
And if the arrangements hold up, the report says they hold up, and you have that in writing from someone who was not paid to arrange them.
No client counts, no logo wall.
You will not find a number of families served on this page, or assets referenced, or a logo wall. Those are the easiest claims in this industry to make and the hardest to check, which is precisely why they are everywhere.
What we will put in writing instead: who reads your arrangements, how we are paid for reading them, and the reasoning behind every recommendation. All three are verifiable. A client count is not.
This is the audience least likely to forgive a number that turns out to be soft, and the one most used to asking where a figure came from. So we would rather bring none than bring one we cannot stand behind.
Three ways this goes wrong, and all three are avoidable.
Cover assembled one decision at a time
Each policy was sensible when it was bought. Together they are not a structure — they are a sediment. The overlaps cost money quietly and the gaps cost money once, and neither shows up until somebody looks at all of it at the same time.
The generation nobody re-underwrote
Cover arranged around principals often treats adult children and elderly parents as afterthoughts, on terms nobody revisited. Health changes; underwriting does not go backwards. The moment to look is while everyone is well, which is precisely the moment nobody feels the need to.
Advice you cannot check
Payment linked to a policy can create a conflict of interest. We publish the courtage arrangement — a percentage of premium paid by the insurer — and explain the recommendation, the alternatives and the reasons for retaining existing cover where appropriate. Ask how a proposed placement is remunerated.
Any of these sound like your situation? See how a review works
Multiple residences, and a premium that follows one of them.
The benchmark we cite through these pages is published by a medical family office, which is why it prices something a private bank's cost-of-living index does not: what comparable private medical cover actually costs, country by country, rather than what a country spends on health.
For a household with residences in more than one jurisdiction the useful finding is the spread. The United States prices at roughly $17,970 a year, Monaco at about $7,630 — and Monaco carries one of the steepest age curves in the whole index, with the older profile paying about 1.72 times the younger one on our arithmetic against those figures. A structure that is efficient for a principal at forty is not automatically efficient for the same principal at sixty, or for a parent joining the policy.
What the index cannot do is tell you which residence your cover should name, whether one policy can span the household, or what happens to a claim made in a country the policy does not name. Those are the questions a review answers in writing, and they are why the number is a starting point rather than an answer.
| Rank | Country | At 24 | At 35 | At 50 | Average |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | United States | $12,773 | $18,765 | $22,368 | $17,969 |
| 2 | Hong Kong (SAR) | $11,360 | $15,822 | $21,344 | $16,175 |
| 5 | United Kingdom | $8,191 | $11,513 | $15,476 | $11,727 |
| 15 | Switzerland | $6,392 | $8,017 | $12,328 | $8,912 |
| 29 | Monaco | $5,491 | $6,404 | $11,006 | $7,634 |
Source: SIP Health Cost Index 2025, SIP Medical Family Office. Data as at August 2025, published 1 December 2025. Averages across seven international insurers and three standard profiles — not quotes, and not a comparison of those insurers against each other. Any comparison or tax-adjusted figure above is our own arithmetic on SIP's published numbers.
What a first review actually looks like.
Arranging international cover for the first time, or checking what you already hold — the process is the same, in this order.
The demand intake
Right after you book, we email you a short intake form. Where you are, where you're going, who's coming with you, anything you already hold. It takes a few minutes, and it means the 45 minutes start prepared — with your situation, not with paperwork.
We study your situation
Not products first. Your life first. We look at the country you're moving to and what it legally requires, the country after that if there is one, who depends on you, and where the real exposure sits. We don't quote anything at this stage.
The consultation
45 minutes, by video, in English. We work through the questions that matter in your situation: underwriting, renewal, exclusions and treatment geography. If you already hold cover, we read its wording and personal endorsements. We identify what is clear and what still needs the insurer's written confirmation.
Your Private Client Report
One working day later, your Private Client Report arrives — around twelve pages setting out what we found, the alternatives considered, available cost information, and the reasons for our recommendation. Any missing documents or insurer answers are identified as open questions. What to arrange, what to keep, and where you are paying for something that isn't doing any work. Sometimes the report says: keep what you have. It is yours either way.
45 minutes. By video, wherever you are. Free. Nothing has to change afterwards.
The people who'll actually review your situation.
Specialists by topic, not a rota. You'll know who you're speaking to before you book, and you'll speak to the same person again next year.
Robert Kolar
Health insurance expert
Twenty-plus years spent on the distance between what a health policy promises and what it pays when a claim actually lands. German and English. He has been the foreigner working out somebody else's health system from the outside, which is its own kind of qualification.
Book with Robert
Nicole Bohne
Life and protection expert
Spent her career inside Basler Versicherung and Zurich Insurance before crossing to this side of the table. Nicole reads a life-cover decision against the whole household — who depends on whom, what already exists, and whether the answer is a policy at all.
Book with Nicole
Virginie Josten
IPMI expert
Came to insurance from luxury and consulting, where the clients were demanding and the work was international. Then a Swiss insurer’s international desk — cross-border employees, expats and retirees abroad. Legal training and a master’s from Paris Dauphine. English and French.
Book with Virginie
Davide Nezel
IPMI expert
FINMA-certified independent insurance intermediary, who began in financial advice at Swiss Life. He works with globally mobile households, and coordinates with the insurer when a medical need actually arises — which is where a policy is finally tested. German, French and English.
Book with Davide
Chantal Leprêtre
Client Advisor
Client advisor for international private medical insurance at SIP Medical Family Office, the partner through which international cover is placed. She works from London, in English and French.
Book with ChantalWhat family offices actually ask us.
What is different about advising a family office?
The unit is the household rather than the headcount, and there is usually more than one of them, in more than one country, on arrangements bought years apart. The work is less about finding a policy and more about reading everything that already exists at the same time — which is a job nobody has usually been given.
We already have advisers. Why would we need another?
Often you do not, and we will say so. Where we are useful is as a second opinion on cover specifically — read by someone who is not the person who arranged it, and who publishes how they are paid. If the arrangements hold up, the report says they hold up and you have that in writing.
Do you take custody or manage investments?
No. This service reviews health and life cover; it does not take custody of assets or provide discretionary investment management. Expat Savvy is an advisory practice and holds no insurance licences of its own. International cover is placed through SIP Medical Family Office. Availability depends on your residence, the product and the relevant SIP entity; we check the placement route before arranging cover. SIP Switzerland AG is the entity registered with FINMA under F01111824. That registration belongs to SIP, not Expat Savvy.
Can you work alongside whoever currently places our cover?
Yes, and it is often the most useful arrangement — they hold the relationship, we read the wording. We are not trying to displace anyone. A review that concludes the incumbent did a good job is a real outcome and one we deliver regularly.
Who would we actually be dealing with?
Named people, not an account team. One adviser owns the file end to end, and you are told who before anything starts. The same person who reads your arrangements writes the report and takes the follow-up call, because handing it on is where the reasoning gets lost.
Reading on this situation.
- Facts checked 2026-08-16Dubai to Cyprus: cheaper cover, and GESY may not take youCover runs 15% cheaper in Cyprus than in the UAE. But GESY is gated on employment or a qualifying status, so a household moving on capital stays outside.
- Facts checked 2026-08-10Dubai to Hong Kong: the largest step-up in cover costHong Kong ranks 2nd of fifty countries for private medical cover, about 67 per cent above the UAE. What that gap means for a household leaving Dubai.
- Facts checked 2026-08-10Relocating from Dubai to Singapore: your coverSingapore keys its health subsidies to citizenship and permanent residence — so a household arriving from Dubai lands with no public floor underneath it.
- Facts checked 2026-08-16Dubai to Switzerland: cheaper cover, nothing that transfersThe UAE mandate is employer-linked and ends with the permit. Switzerland compels the individual to hold KVG cover three months from taking up residence.
Ready for a calm conversation about cover?
A first review is free — 45 minutes, in English, wherever in the world you happen to be. We'll listen first. Then you'll hear exactly what we would arrange if the situation were ours. What you do with that is yours to decide.
Book a review