2027 review season. Two different deadlines: most supplementary contracts must be cancelled by 30 September, basic insurance by 30 November. We read both — and only move what should move. Supplementary by 30 Sep · basic by 30 Nov.
For executives, wealthy arrivals, and the family offices who look after them: we read the health, life, pension, and valuables architecture of a Swiss household — and only that — in coordination with your bank, tax counsel, and lawyers.
01 · The box we draw
Generalists claim everything. Specialists draw their box. Ours is the insurance layer of a household's wealth — nothing beside it.
What we do
What we don't
02 · The work
Certain categories can stay outside Swiss basic insurance with a cantonal exemption under Art. 2 KVV — applied for within three months, with proof of equivalent international cover. Misjudged, the household pays twice or loses cover it should have kept. For international and IPMI plans we work with sip.ch, who specialise in the segment where Swiss-domestic advisors typically don't. Where Swiss cover wins, we build worldwide private hospital insurance the ordinary market rarely reads closely.
A death benefit pays out quickly and outside the slower estate process — liquidity exactly when assets are hardest to move: wealth concentrated in property or a business, heirs with obligations in several countries, a survivor needing immediate income. Beneficiary designations and the interaction with marital-property and inheritance law are where the real decisions sit; we build the insurance side with your counsel.
Our own pension pages say it plainly: banking 3a is usually the cleaner answer. For some wealthy households the insurance wrapper earns its place — a real protection gap, enforced structure, or pillar 3b's uncapped, flexible layer beside a maxed 3a. Nicole runs this assessment against the tax picture your advisors maintain, and the honest recommendation comes before any product.
Standard household policies cap valuables at sub-limits that are fine for a typical flat and wrong for a collection. Itemised cover insures named pieces at agreed values — appraisals, documentation, and the annual review as pieces move or markets do. We read the sub-limits against what actually hangs on the walls and sits in the safe.
03 · For family offices
Family offices come to us two ways: referring one household for a discreet second read, or offering the review as a standing benefit across their client families. Either way, the verification takes five minutes.
One senior contact. Full disclosure. No surprises.
The household's details stay with the household — the family office sees logistics, never content.01
02
Commission from insurers on issued contracts, disclosed under Art. 45 VAG — stated before engagement, itemised on request. The review itself costs the household nothing.
03
Reviews as a structured benefit across your families — dedicated booking, three languages, a written Private Client Report per household. The mechanics sit on the programs page.
Every engagement ends in writing: the Private Client Report — what to set up, what to keep, what to skip, and the reasoning — delivered within 3 working days of the review.
04 · Asked first, almost always
Basic insurance pays for emergencies abroad — capped at twice what the equivalent treatment costs in your Swiss canton, and only for emergencies. Planned treatment abroad needs the worldwide tiers of semi-private or private hospital cover, and for households whose life is genuinely multi-country, an international (IPMI) plan can beat any Swiss construction. The tiers and their real payment behaviour sit in our Hospital Insurance Cost Index.
Supplementary cover is underwritten once, at entry (Art. 4 VVG), and the age curve at signup decides the lifetime cost — not the first premium. Conditions that arise after signing become potential exclusions on any later switch, which is why the architecture is built early and changed rarely. For wealthy households the stakes are simply larger: the products are bigger, and so is the cost of a door that closes.
No — 3b has no contribution cap and no lock-up: it is the flexible private layer beside a maxed 3a, taking any form from insurance contracts to structured savings. It also has no federal tax deduction, which is exactly why it belongs inside the picture your tax counsel maintains rather than beside it. The tied-vs-flexible mechanics sit on our 3a-vs-3b page.
Individually, no — and answering them incompletely can void the contract when it matters most (Art. 6 VVG). Structurally, sometimes: collective agreements can offer supplementary cover with simplified or, in defined cases, waived health questions for eligible groups — the route family offices use for their client families, described on the programs page. We tell you which of the two worlds your situation lives in before anything is applied for.
Tell us the shape of the household — or have your family office make the introduction. The first conversation costs nothing and commits to less.
Start the conversationOr write directly: hello@expat-savvy.ch
