Hello,

My husband and I moved here from the US so he can complete his PhD. We are thinking it would be a wise decisions to purchase some sort of life insurance policy for him. We will be here for the next 3.5-4 years. Should we purchase a policy in Switzerland or can we purchase one in the States? Does anyone have any recommendations of where/how to purchase life insurance.

Thank you!

What kind of life insurance are you looking for?

If you're looking for risk insurance only then it's pretty expensive over here. I am sure you can find something less expensive in the States.

Otherwise, if you want death benefits in the case of an accident, that tends to be ok over here and you could even get it as an add on to your health insurance.

If you'll be here for 5 years, I wouldn't recommend you taking out a "3rd pillar" policy as you'll probably be losing out in the long run.

A very short answer - take it out in the US as it'll most definitely be cheaper.

However, to get a cheaper rate in the US, you will likely need to go through underwriting (which may include a medical or a paramed part depending on how big of a death benefit we are talking about). And, in order to qualify for the cheaper rate in the US, you'll need to qualify for the preferred (which means "better health"/"better risk") class. And to qualify for this, most insurance companies require you to be a resident of the US which in your case, this is no longer true!

Of course, you could choose to lie on your insurance application and say that you are a resident of the US, but the insurance company will have a 2-year period to contest this. In addition, since you are not physically in the US, it may just be difficult to go through the entire underwriting process.

There are some other options in the US where you can get "instant" approval or something simliar, but these policies tend to be more expensive with a limited (lower) death benefit amount.

When is the next time you're going to be back in the US? Could possibly do it then.


And a general comment about Pillar 3 (regardless of whether we're talking about the insurance or the plain vanilla saving option) - be careful about putting any money in Pillar 3 as Americans!!! The "correct" thinking and tax optimization for Americans in Switzerland are often the opposite of that for people from a different country, simply b/c of the US tax liability.