Does anyone here have a life assurance product and if so who with?

I used to have one in the UK and thinking of getting one now to pay off my mortgage in the event of my untimely demise (or incapacity).

I basically want a simply product where I pay X chfs per month/annum and it pays out a lump sum of X.

A quick search of EF shows that Swiss Life is one of potential supplier, but I would be interested in hearing any first hand experiences esp. for those who prefer not to deal with it in German.

Just to add: was thinking of going with:

http://www.postfinance.ch/en/priv/pr...and_conditions

since it looks simple and is in english! but will need to check prices and also understand/re-read about what is difference between pillar 3a and 3b and whether by using part of this in the 3rd pillar whether i can still make other savings (mix and match) with the 3rd pillar.

i would appreciate pointers from anyone who has done this or used this product. thanks.

Hi Phil,

I can help you with all this if you'd like. There are so many products and solutions available but some I would recommend people, especially expats, avoid like the plague! They simply don't make sense in this climate.

If you wanted to send me a PM we could talk through some options.

Best,
David.

Phil

Do you have any dependants or anyone else you need or want to provide for if the worst should happen?

I recall a single friend of mine once being advised not to bother with life assurance to pay off his mortgage if he answered no to that as the lenders would sell off the property anyway to get back their money.

However, he was advised to take out the appropriate insurance(s) to cover accident, sickness, disability, unemployment in the event he was incapable of paying as a result of any of these.

Admittedly this was in the UK so things may be different here but it might be something to consider and ask an advisor / insurance professional anyway. Just a thought...

i used to have life assurance to make sure my gf was covered should anything happen to me. i guess now that i am single, it doesn't matter as much, but i would like to be covered anyhow now that i am looking at it and hopefully, i won't be single forever and so might as well get this sorted now

Yeah, who wants to be single forever. Right?!!

Having met you twice now so far, methinks you'd be a nice catch for some young lady out there.

In general terms, life insurance (assurance is the French version) can be used to cover risks (death) but often, especially in CH, can be used as well as a savings vehicle.

My guess is you are talking about a straight risk product that has a certain term. Often the term will want to cover the important years where you may have a mortgage, children who are at home etc. Once other assets are in place, children are gone (if they ever are), people often do away with the insurance. We are talking typically 10-20 year term insurance.

Since most insurance is based on health, there are certain advantages to sign up while younger so you can pass the tests and get a lower rate.

Another question about any term insurance is the payment schedule. It can often be fixed (same amount each year) or variable (increasing with age). Not all companies offer each.

Can't help you with a specific CH suggestion other than to say that you want to be clear with the point that you are looking only for term risk insurance and not a savings vehicle when asking for offers.

thanks for your comments. you're right, i'm after a straight risk product without any complexity of bolting a savings vehicle on top. probably looking at 10 year fixed/non-decreasing.

btw, "assurance" refers to provision against a certain event (i.e. death) whereas "insurance" is provision against a possible event (e.g. fire, flood, theft).

Don't know but Wikipedia does not seem to agree with you

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Life_insurance

Assurance in English has a different meaning. Lots of dictionary entries. Here is just one.

http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/assurance

did you read the assurance vs insurance section of the link you posted?

We looked at policies with Generali and Zürich when they were made a condition of a flat we were interesting in getting a mortgage for. Starting in our late 20s, we found they would only pay out something like 3x yearly salary in the event of death and we were paying something like 7k a year for the policy - it didn't seem worth it. It wouldn't have paid off our Swiss mortgage anyways.

ouch. i was hoping to pay something like 30-90chfs a month for, say, 400kchfs of cover.

Like I said, some of the products just don't make sense at the moment...

One has to be super sure what is actually needed and how much they wish to pay into such a scheme to top up and fill the gaps in the 3rd pillar.

There are still companies who will cover you in the UK as an expat. If you are interested I will dig out the info. From memory we were quoted GBP150 (for my partner and myself) for GBP 250K of cover.

thanks. i was thinking about it, but i thought it was only for people returning soon to the UK (or intending to).

We have something through an agent in Jersey - the insurance is through Canada Life (I think it has changed its name recently). If you are happy with what's already been discussed, then great. But if you want more info, I can look it up when at home. Let me know.

point is, life insurance policies are more expensive in the CH compared to other places such as UK or US. Not sure about the rest of Europe though.

If you can get a UK policy, I would personally go with that, and to benefit the most, this should be done after the insurance companies have to change their pricing strategy per the ridiculouly stupid EU court ruling of gender discrimination. As you are a guy and are therefore expected to die earlier on average than a girl, your rate will most definitley go down when the companies are no longer able to price based on gender.

As to CH life policies, Axa Wintertur might be worth checking. They have simple risk only term life pocies and their prices are competitive. will be in German though, however

We are based here on a Swiss contract and so get quite some insurance coverage with our pension. The recurring problem with insurance is that you must guard against double cover. Go decide what you want to cover (ok, a mortgage) and then the event (be it the first partner to die or inability to earn) and then you must check what cover you have already and insure as much of the gap as you want/can afford. Yes, we are going towards a matrix here.
It took us several visits from a nice man from Mobiliare to get this sorted - cheaper than double payments though.

Sorry to resurrect an old thread, but do you have the details of UK companies who will cover expats?

These guys were good but a tad expensive. http://www.charcol.co.uk/