Who we are.
Expat Savvy is the brand under which Lang & Partner GmbH serves international clients in Switzerland — a FINMA-registered independent insurance intermediary (FINMA register F01067278), based in Zürich, in operation since 2017. We are not tied to any insurer. The regulatory frame for that distinction is documented at our Article 45 VAG disclosure.
We work with internationals settling in Switzerland — a deliberately narrow brief. We do not serve every demographic, every insurance product, or every canton with equal depth. The longer answer to what an independent Swiss insurance advisor is, and how we differ from tied agents and comparison portals, sits in the positioning piece.
We read the Swiss insurance contracts so you don't have to. We spot the traps sales agents won't mention. We match you with what you actually need — not what someone's trying to sell. — Expat Savvy
The team.
Three people. Each with a primary specialty. The booking flow shows availability per advisor by topic.
Robert Kolar
Health insurance specialist
20+ years in Swiss insurance. Reads supplementary contracts line by line. Languages: German, English, and Czech.
More about Robert →
Hans Steiner
Financial Planner IAF & Federal Diploma of Higher Education
Pension, 3rd pillar, life insurance, and cross-border situations. Languages: German, English, and French.
More about Hans →
Ben Wagner
Founder · Strategy & partnerships
Fifteen years in Swiss health insurance, then tech. Runs loaded.ch and the Expat Digital Group network. Languages: German, English, and Russian.
More about Ben →What we do not do.
Restraint is the advisor difference. The boundaries are explicit:
- We do not issue contracts in the first call. The recommendations come away in writing within three working days; the decision sits with you.
- We do not make blanket recommendations. "Insurer X is best" is not a recommendation we ever make.
- We do not recommend things we have not read. Ambiguous clauses get flagged, not interpreted optimistically.
- We do not give legal advice. Cross-border tax interaction, inheritance complexity, divorce financial settlements — we route to specialists.
- We do not operate in every language. English primarily; German across the team; Robert in Czech; Hans in French; Ben in Russian. For Italian-language advisory, we are not the right firm.
The fuller process explanation — what to bring, who you meet, what comes out the other side — sits at what happens in your first Swiss insurance review.
The four traps.
Every review we run uses the same four-point diagnostic — the age-curve trap, the 3-month deadline, coverage that pays vs coverage that fights, and matching coverage to your life. The longer reference on each, with federal-law citations and the patterns we routinely catch, sits in the four-traps deep dive.
