Can I take out Life insurance if I am an Australian expat living overseas?

Russell Cain Updated: 02 February 2020

Australian expat living overseas

In relation to expats living overseas, a number of insurers have changed / updated their views on how willing they are to offer life / tpd / trauma or income protection to expat Australians livings aboard.

Firstly: Here are some of the key pieces of information that we would need to know before we could give you a meaningful response.

Are you an Australian citizenAre you working overseas for a set period of timeIs the set period of time is no more than 5 yearsIs there a planned / clear return to Australia dateHave you got a working contract in place

Secondly: The life insurance company will also take into consideration where you are travelling to /residing in and the travel warning surrounding the country or region.

There are 4 levels of travel warnings:

Exercise normal safety precautions (Green) High degree of caution (Yellow) Reconsider your need to travel (Orange) Do not Travel (Red)

Generally speaking insurerâs consider the regions marked as Green or Yellow acceptable, regions marked as Orange will require individual consideration and if the region is red, generally speaking they will not be able to offer cover but I would still recommend asking!

For income protection policies you will be best to provide the following as well:

Your occupationYour Qualifications,Current Income,Are you an employee or self-employed

Please note: They will also generally also apply a repatriation clause for Income protection benefits.

Finally: we have recently found that a number of insurers insist that the application must be signed /completed in Australia before the client leaves the country or when the client comes back to visit for business or on holiday and if there are any medical requirements requested by the insurer they must be completed in Australia.