Expatrio launches repatriation insurance in partnership with ELEMENT Insurance

When moving to Germany, there are several necessary things a student has to arrange so their stay and studies abroad are as comfortable and secure as possible. From fulfilling the visa requirements, certain financial requests, to health insurance and of course arranging accommodation - it is a lot to figure out by yourself.

This overwhelming experience can let one forget about having the right protection for unforeseen and undesirable events. That is why Expatrio partnered with ELEMENT to offer repatriation insurance. When coming to Germany, you can be assured you are covered even in the worst of cases.

As providing protection is our key motivation at Expatrio, it was only natural to partner with ELEMENT and develop an insurance product for probably the most undesirable events - one's unforeseen demise in a foreign country. Christian Macht, the Chairman of ELEMENT Insurance AG, talked with us about the development process of this special insurance service. Furthermore, Christian explains the vision behind the collaboration and gives some insights into the product.

1. Christian, please give us some insights on what ELEMENT is doing.

C.M.: In short, we are a white-label product factory for insurance. This means, we create white-labelled insurance products underwritten in-house, which we supply to our partners from various industries. Thanks to our proprietary tech platform, we are able to implement new products within an average of 2-4 weeks, and we can really tailor these products exactly to the customers’ needs. We already brought several products live with industry leaders such as Volkswagen, but also with emerging companies like Clark, Wetterheld, and of course Expatrio. In the end, this was made possible by the great team here at ELEMENT, who really knows how to combine tech and insurance into great products!

2. ELEMENT is already collaborating with Expatrio on other products. What did you think when you were approached by us to develop the repatriation insurance?

C.M.: Expatrio and ELEMENT share the same idea – we want to offer customer-centric products and services. This approach can be found in all of our jointly developed products, such as the liability or household insurance for foreign students and expats. These insurances cover daily things that are easy to lose and can get pricey and annoying when you are abroad. For example, coverage for keys for student dormitories or a lost laptop, and of course, insurance documents can’t only be in German, so they are available in various other languages. 
For our new product, the repatriation insurance, we used the same approach – what does our target group need? 

3. What are the challenges of developing a repatriation product?

C.M.: There was a lot to consider, as this is such a sensitive topic. Our new insurance covers the complete repatriation back into the home country. And it, of course, reflects the requirements set by various ethics and religions, which we did a lot of research into to get relevant insights.
Secondly, we had to understand the technical challenges that come along with such a product. Here, we researched the different time frames for repatriation, handling of the deceased, and of course, the way of informing relatives, which should be covered within the policy. In developing this product, we went on a steep learning curve until we had a product which we as well as our regulatory authorities were happy with.

4. In which context is the repatriation product advisable?

C.M.: A basic repatriation is often part of travel health insurance, but foreign students and expats lose this cover once they start living here permanently and become part of the public health insurance. However, the German public health insurance does not cover repatriation to one's home country. We developed this product to fill this gap. 

5. Which future projects and products do you envision with Expatrio?

C.M.: As mentioned earlier, Expatrio and ELEMENT share the same approach in offering products that make our customers’ lives better. Since Expatrio is expanding rapidly over the last two years, we are constantly discussing new ideas. Currently, we are especially looking into further travel assistance services, as this would be a great addition to the products already on offer.

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Expatrio thanks ELEMENT for the interview! This interview was held by Alexander Ruthemeier, Co-Founder of Expatrio Global Services GmbH and Dr. Christian Macht, Chairman of the Board ELEMENT Insurance AG. 
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For more information on ELEMENT Insurance AG, please visit www.element.in.