Expat Savvy is an independent insurance advisory for internationals living in Switzerland, founded in 2017 and seeing clients at an office on Talacker 41 in Zurich. The advice is given by Lang + Partner Finanzdienstleistungen GmbH, a non-tied insurance intermediary entered in the FINMA register, so the advisors are not bound to one insurer and can lay the Swiss market side by side. Conversations run in English by default, by video, by phone or in person, which means you can use them from any canton.
Most people first get in touch in the weeks after they land. Once you have registered with your Gemeinde or Kreisbüro, the clock starts on mandatory basic health insurance under the KVG (LAMal in the French-speaking cantons): you have three months, and a late start means a premium surcharge. Basic benefits are fixed by law and identical at every insurer, so the real choices are the price in your premium region, the franchise (deductible) from CHF 300 to CHF 2,500, and the model, such as family doctor, HMO or telemedicine. Supplementary cover under the VVG, from hospital ward class to dental, is medically underwritten, which is why the team looks at it early rather than years later.
The review does not stop at health cover. Expat Savvy also checks household contents insurance (Hausrat) and private liability (Privathaftpflicht), the pair many landlords want to see before you sign a lease, and looks for risks you are insuring twice. On the protection side, Nicole Bohne reads your pension fund (BVG) certificate to size any gap in life or disability cover, then weighs pillar 3a at a bank against an insurance-wrapped 3a or 3b policy for your income and canton. For the phases before Switzerland or after it, three colleagues handle international health insurance, and the pension guidance covers what happens to your 3a savings if you leave the country for good.
A first review takes 45 minutes and is booked straight from an online calendar, with Robert Kolar for health insurance or Nicole Bohne for life cover, the 3rd pillar and tax. You fill in a short intake form beforehand, and within three working days you receive a written Private Client Report setting out which policies to keep, which to change and which to skip. If you would rather sit across a table, the Expat Savvy Zurich office at Talacker 41 takes appointments. Every autumn the advisors go through your policies again, ahead of the 30 September notice date that applies to many supplementary contracts and the 30 November deadline for cancelling basic insurance.
Clients range from individual households to employers and relocation agencies that offer the review as a staff benefit, and to wealthier families, sometimes introduced by their family office. Expat Savvy does not charge for its advice: it receives a courtage from insurers when a policy is placed, disclosed under Article 45 of the Insurance Supervision Act, and a review can just as well end with the advice to change nothing.
