Life Insurance
Life Insurance
Hey everyone, I have a question regarding life insurance. I am a US citizen and will be teaching in an international school next school year outside of my home country. I am in my late 20s, single, with no dependents. However, I would like to have life insurance just to be on the safe side if only to make sure my family back home would not need to be financially burdened if something happened. I did a cursory Google search regarding acquiring life insurance while one lives abroad but I would like to see if any of you can tell me what your experiences have been getting covered. Sorry for the morbid topic but I just want to have all my bases covered!
Response
What you want to specifically look for is "Medical Evacuation" insurance and "Repatriation" insurance. These are special types of coverage that most "Health/Medical" insurance does not cover. Medical Evacuation is getting you back to your HOR when you essentially cant travel by yourself or need medical care en-route. Repatriation returns your remains should you expire/pass away.
Since your single I would look into STA Travel (http://www.statravel.com/travel-insurance.htm). They have three plans and all are available to "Teachers". They all will get you a discount/ID card and they all include repatriation and medical evacuation benefits. The basic plan includes a (USD) $1K/5K death benefit, the premium and explorer include (USD) $25K/$100K death benefits. All the plans have one time premiums that cover the entire year. They also have other varying benefits, and the discount cards have some uses as well. The costs are (USD) $25/$99/$199. If all your interested in is making sure your body gets back to your family for burial the USD$25/yr policy will do that at a cost thats barely worth thinking about. If you want your family to get some coin for the funeral as well (essentially USD$25K for everything that isnt air travel, which is USD$100K), then the premium plan at a cost of USD$99/yr is negligible.
They are pretty good about claims, I get the explorer plan (USD$199/yr) as I dive, surf and ski and this is the most reasonably affordable plan that covers those activities as well as the other benefits. Ive had to make claims for various travel (flight) issues, as far as the medical coverage I had to have an emergency dental procedure for a chipped tooth (capped) and most seriously for the bends during a dive (hyperbaric treatment is expensive).
The downside compared to whole or term life insurance policies is your not building value that you can tap into in the case of a financial emergency, and of course the pay out isnt high enough to change anyones lifestyle.
Since your single I would look into STA Travel (http://www.statravel.com/travel-insurance.htm). They have three plans and all are available to "Teachers". They all will get you a discount/ID card and they all include repatriation and medical evacuation benefits. The basic plan includes a (USD) $1K/5K death benefit, the premium and explorer include (USD) $25K/$100K death benefits. All the plans have one time premiums that cover the entire year. They also have other varying benefits, and the discount cards have some uses as well. The costs are (USD) $25/$99/$199. If all your interested in is making sure your body gets back to your family for burial the USD$25/yr policy will do that at a cost thats barely worth thinking about. If you want your family to get some coin for the funeral as well (essentially USD$25K for everything that isnt air travel, which is USD$100K), then the premium plan at a cost of USD$99/yr is negligible.
They are pretty good about claims, I get the explorer plan (USD$199/yr) as I dive, surf and ski and this is the most reasonably affordable plan that covers those activities as well as the other benefits. Ive had to make claims for various travel (flight) issues, as far as the medical coverage I had to have an emergency dental procedure for a chipped tooth (capped) and most seriously for the bends during a dive (hyperbaric treatment is expensive).
The downside compared to whole or term life insurance policies is your not building value that you can tap into in the case of a financial emergency, and of course the pay out isnt high enough to change anyones lifestyle.