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Insurance For Global Nomads

How does life insurance work?

Whilst the specific terms and conditions of different life insurance policies can vary, the basic principle is the same for all life insurance policies – if you die, it pays out money to the people you nominated as beneficiaries.

This is usually either:

  1. People who are financially dependent on your income (which would stop if you died), such as children and/or a partner/spouse, and/or
  2. The people who would have to sort out all the legal requirements and technicalities relating to your death. Sometimes they are the same people.

When using life insurance to provide financial support to your loved ones, life insurance protects your children or other family members financially, by providing them with a one-off amount of money – the amount you are insured for – which they can use to pay for all the things they need, which would have been paid for by you if you hadn’t unexpectedly died young. It can be the difference between living in poverty or not, and has a huge impact on the options they have in life.

When using life insurance to make sure that you are not putting a financial burden on your family or friends if you unexpectedly die young, it is there to cover the cost of dying – including burial or cremation arrangements, a funeral, and any special requests you have.

If you are a global nomad or expatriate living in a different country to the one you call home, there are additional complexities involved with transporting your body internationally, which involve significantly increased costs.

Living in a different country does not increase the chances of you unexpectedly dying young, it just makes it more expensive for your family to deal with if you do.

Whilst the exact cost of “international death” varies based on the specific circumstances, it generally costs between $10,000 to $20,000 (USD) to deal with all the legal requirements and physically transport a body internationally. This number can be a lot lower if there is no flying involved, and a lot higher if it involves somewhere particularly remote or transit in a third country along the way. And this figure does not include the cost of one or more of your family members having to travel internationally to come and sort out the legal requirements, and bring you home.

In addition to the money, life insurance policies which have been specifically designed for international nomads and expatriates – like the one from LifeInsuranceForNomads.com – provide other features and benefits which are there to help your family deal with not just the cost, but also the actual processes and administration involved if you die overseas. This is hugely important, and depending on your family’s financial situation, may be more valuable than the money.

Life insurance policies from a specific country do not offer this, because most of their customers are not global nomads or expatriates. Travel insurance would usually refund the cost of repatriating your body (up to a certain amount, after it has already been paid for by your family and a receipt is provided), but does not offer any help or support to your family to actually bring your body home or deal with the legal requirements. Having some life insurance from a nomad-specific insurance company provides this extra support, regardless of how much money you are insured for.