What insurances do I need as an expat in Germany?
Individuals & families What insurances you need naturally depends on your individual situation: how long you are planning to stay in Germany, whether you are a freelancer or employed, whether you have kids, etc. However, there are insurances that are strongly recommended for almost every situation and others that can be bundled together to form […]
Health insurance for a visa in Germany
What is it? Health insurance in Germany is mandatory and therefore a requirement in order to be granted a visa of any kind in Germany. That holds true for a short-term stay, for working in Germany for a few years and to move to Germany for good. When applying for a visa you need to […]
Private health insurance
What is it? The origins of private health insurance (PKV) can be traced back to the social security laws of Otto von Bismarck at the end of the 19th century. By providing health insurance only for employed citizen, there were many people who did not have access to public health care: civil servants, self-employed, freelancers, […]
Risk life insurance
What is it? Risk life insurances (Risk-LI) have one main objective: the financial security of the surviving dependents in the event of death. The functionality is therefore also sufficiently simple and can be explained quickly: If you die within the contract period, your family members will receive a one-time payment. Of course, despite the relative […]
Private liability insurance
What is it? It can go very quickly: you drive your bike through a red light, a car has to swerve and drives against a wall. The car is completely destroyed and the wall is also damaged. Now you not only have to pay the fine for the red light, but the driver and the […]
Private legal expenses insurance
What is it? Legal expenses insurances (LEI) are a relatively young branch of insurances, effectively going mainstream in the early nineties. With the increasing “juridification” of our society, the importance of these insurances in general and private LEIs in particular continues to increase. A private LEI is supposed to enable you to get your right […]
D&O insurance
What is it? D&O insurances originated in the United States in the 1930s and have started to become popular in Germany in the late 1980s. The long form is “Directors and Officers liability insurance”, where the “D” stands for directors and the “O” for officers. It is an insurance that is directed at the upper […]
Public health insurance
What is it? The public health insurance (GKV) system has its origin in the social laws introduced by Otto von Bismarck at the end of the 19th century. All “workers” (today: employees) had to insure themselves in the GKV, in order to receive a minimum amount of protection. Meanwhile, the tasks have become more diverse, […]
Employment-based retirement plans
What is it? Employment-based retirement plans is a collective term for all financial benefits that an employer can provide to his employees for pensions, survivor’s benefits in the event of death or invalidity benefits. Nobody denies the fact that the pension provided by the public retirement plan will no longer be sufficient to maintain the […]
Occupational disability insurance
What is it? To put it simply: the occupational disability insurance protects you against the loss of income should you no longer be able to work. Occupational disability insurance is a somewhat peculiar case because it is simultaneously seen as extremely important yet few people actually have one. Put in numbers, it is consistently named […]