Why International Liability Insurance is Essential for Expatriates

When people move abroad to live or work in another country, one of the very last things they think about is personal liability insurance. Before we explore why we think this may be the last thing on people's minds, let's examine why international liability insurance is absolutely essential for anyone with an established net worth. This coverage is not just for the rich expatriates on high profile assignments.

International liability insurance would cover claims against the insured or the insured's family related to lawsuit or damage awards due to negligence (the the judge or local magistrate deems you or a family member negligent, whether you were or not!) A lawsuit can happen anywhere, it's not just something that happens in the U.S. or the home country. In many countries it's not a lawsuit as most would picture, but a damage award. Here is what would happen in many countries; You or a family member causes harm or financial loss to a local national in your host country. You are brought before a judge or local magistrate. The judge hears the evidence and orders you to pay the defendant $200,000. No 4 month trial... no appeal... bang. What do you do? Are you carrying global liability insurance? At $5 a month to protect the entire family, why not?

Again, we interview many with the false assumption of "I work for a large multinational company and they must have insurance for me in this area." This is almost never the case. They have no corporate or commercial liability policies that can cover your personal claims.

What happens when someone does not carry international liability insurance, the company has no insurance to assist, and a large damage award needs to be paid? Well, the options are few all all are not good for the career of the expatriate.

• The person does not pay and is either jailed, has items seized, or is forced in some way to leave the country.
• The person pays the entire personal liability claim out of his/her own pocket perhaps writing a $50,000 check.
• The employer is in some way, dragged into the claim either to assist in paying the claim or because the defendant is not carrying any personal liability insurance as an expatriate, the employer's legal entity is named and attached in the lawsuit.

Again, an expatriate that takes the arrogant attitude of "my company would pay it for me" has certainly not even attempted to think through the issues of why this is very unpleasant, if not impossible. Our next post will be about just that.

Vacant Home Insurance U.K., Canada, U.S. or any other home country

A potentially catastrophic problem for people that move overseas to live or work, has to do with leaving a house back in the home country that becomes empty or vacant. 90% of people that have a home that becomes vacant do not understand the provisions of their current homeowners insurance policy. In other words, they do not understand that coverage is quickly lost or removed if the house becomes empty or vacant for over 60 days. International vacant homeowners insurance is essential.

So what we have is potentially thousands of people around the world that still own a house back in the home country, and the house may be uninsured because it is empty or unoccupied. In fact, if you expect your home will be unoccupied for just 30 days you should look into a vacant home insurance policy. Here are a few facts that may be shocking:

• Even if your homeowners insurance is fully paid up, you may have no coverage
• Insurers can refund premium and then deny catastrophic claims on vacant homes
• Coverage can be lost under a homeowners insurance policy, especially for vandalism, in 30 days or less.
• If you had a renter in the house, and the renter leaves you need to remember to switch the policy over to a vacant homeowners insurance policy or risk losing everything.

Outside of the United States, Lloyd's of London is a carrier that can provide vacant home insurance in the U.K., and vacant homeowners insurance in China and 50 other countries.

Biggest Mistake Expatriates Make, Forgetting the International Property Insurance

One of the biggest mistakes expatriates make when they go to live internationally on a work assignment, is believing they have to take no action to insure their international property and to provide themselves international liability insurance. The reason is, they falsely believe their employer is either providing these coverages for them, or in the event of loss, the employer would financially bail them out.

This is almost never the case. Employees need to understand that as soon as the moving truck backs away, it is their own responsibility to secure international property insurance and international liability insurance to protect their financial net worth or risk everything. Many expatriates will not take this initiative or even investigate options for their international personal effects believing the employer will be there for them in the event of a personal claim.

The legal and tax reasons why employers cannot get involved is explained at www.internationalpropertyinsurance.com