Lots of things can go wrong when you travel. Lots of things can go wrong when you stay put too. Spending a year away from our usual home base meant we had to consider protecting ourselves and our stuff both in and in-between two countries. As a result during the course of Project Koru we've had to maintain and newly purchase a number of insurance policies. It may seem like wasted money, but our financial advisor has always been careful to ensure our financial planning is underpinned by appropriate insurance. If you're planning a long trip, these notes might prompt you to ask pertinent questions.

Travel insurance

It was almost impossible to find a UK-based insurance policy that would cover our travel to New Zealand and our return one year later; almost everything we looked at required a return trip inside 3 months. For example, STA had an annual multi-trip policy on offer that would have cost £125 for the two of us—but we would have had to return to the UK every 2 months! On the telephone (the website didn't allow trips more than 12 months) they suggested that we each take out a Standard Premium policy that would cover us for:

• 15 months;
• Loss of valuables up to £1500 total;
• Loss of individual item up to £400;
• Loss of computer up to £1000.

At a cost of £639 per person. That's £1278 total: ouch!

We decided to opt for one-way travel insurance (we used Downunder Insurance) for UK to NZ via China (and back via Australia, as it happens) plus arrange local insurance to cover single return trips (Australia, Samoa) while in NZ (we used Southern Cross). Needless to say this arrangement was considerable less expensive than the STA offering.

Income protection insurance

Moving to New Zealand involved a drop in income for both of us. We each had some insecurities around the work we would find there, and the work we hoped to find on our return to the UK. But you can plan for an expected drop in income. What if we became ill, through illness or accident, and were suddenly unable to work? As a self-employed locum Bruce would not be entitled to any sick pay. Income protection insurance pays a regular tax-free income in the event of your incapacity for work. To our surprise our income protection plan provider in the UK was happy to continue our cover during our time in New Zealand. They said we could continue paying our premiums as normal, since we are in the same line of work and NZ is one of the "included territories", meaning we could claim for loss of income in NZ under same terms and conditions as in the UK. There was no time limit on the cover, the only condition being that the premium must be paid from a UK bank account. Another issue to consider was that our provider was closed to new business so if we did reduce our level of cover we would not have the option to increase it again. With these factors in mind we continued our UK-based cover at the same level.

Income protection insurance can be arranged in New Zealand and, for health professionals, is offered by the Medical Assurance Society.

Critical illness insurance

A "critical illness" is one that could lead to your death or be life-changing (e.g. cancer, heart attack). In the UK we also took out critical illness insurance, which pays out a lump sum to help you and your family cope with the resulting change in circumstances. We checked with our provider and they were happy for us to continuing paying the premium from a UK bank account. From our point-of-view continuing the payments would likely be cheaper and less involved than rejoining a scheme at an "older" entry point.

Bad stuff happens: have good insurance back-up (Image: iStockPhoto)

Personal medical insurance

We had personal medical insurance (PMI) in the UK for a while, until we realised we could have a lot of private consultations for the cost of the premiums. New Zealand's accident compensation scheme, ACC, provides personal injury cover for all New Zealand citizens, residents and temporary visitors to New Zealand (if the accident happened in NZ). In return people give up the right to sue for personal injury (other than for exemplary damages). ACC doesn't help with the cost of appointments, investigations or treatments for medical conditions, however. That said a private consultation is not too expensive (approx. $NZ120). Since we are both currently healthy and entitled to free consultations at the Wellington Accident and Urgent Medical Centre where Bruce works, we did not take out a PMI policy. Many New Zealanders do, however, and this is something we'd consider for a longer stay.

Dental care can be expensive. For example, at Symes de Silva Bruce was charged $NZ55 to get a dentist's permission to see a dental hygienist, then $NZ150 twice for hour-long sessions with her: that's $NZ355 and 135 minutes, vs. £50 (ish) and a half-hour in the UK for the same 6-monthly "scale and polish". This goes a long way to explain the poor state of the nation's teeth!

Professional indemnity insurance

Professional indemnity insurance is not optional, as doctors in our society are not allowed to make mistakes—they can only be negligent. We arranged an international transfer of MPS membership, which saved having to re-apply in New Zealand. It works the same in reverse. For GPs indemnity insurance is much cheaper in New Zealand; a GP pays not much more for annual cover in NZ as s/he does for a month of cover in the UK. It is, however, more expensive for Simone in Family Planning; she pays a similar amount to a GP, not having the benefit of crown indemnity.

Home and contents insurance

Since we retained our house and nearly all of its contents in the UK, we needed to cover it against loss or damage. We asked our provider if our current premium needed to change in view of our house being initially unoccupied: they said no. Furthermore, our existing policy covered personal belongs normally kept there even while they were with us in New Zealand (although legally we don't know how this fits in with items also covered by our travel policy). They did warn us, however, that when the policy expired (while were were still in NZ) their underwriter may not agree to reinsure us. Of course this was quite worrying, and a Google search indicated that it might be difficult (not to mention expensive) to arrange unoccupied home insurance (we planned to ask BIBA for advice). In the event Norwich Union agreed to reinsure us, at same level of cover, with a clause that the house was unoccupied (although it wasn't).

We also took out contents cover for our property in New Zealand (using AMI; MAS might be an alternative). Our policy included personal liability insurance (see below).

Personal liability insurance

Tenancy Services produce an information leaflet discussing insurance (T65 06/04). It notes:

Tenants can also insure themselves against the risk of being held liable for damage. They cannot insure the rental property itself (as they do not own it) but they can insure:

• their own property (contents insurance), and/or
• themselves against the risk of being held liable for damage they cause (personal liability insurance).

Personal liability insurance is usually part of normal contents insurance, or can be added to it. Some companies will consider a personal liability insurance without the contents policy attached. Sometimes it is called 'legal liability'. Tenants should check their policy to see whether they are covered. Some policies may have a number of exceptions, or limited cover.

Their advice to tenants is clear:

• YOU NEED INSURANCE. If you are signing a tenancy agreement you should consider personal liability insurance, or have a contents insurance policy which also covers you for damage caused to the landlord’s property. Even if you are not named on the tenancy agreement it is still a good idea to insure your own goods and have personal liability insurance;
• You could be held liable for damage. Remember that if you are named on the tenancy agreement you can be held liable for any intentional or careless damage, whether you caused it or not.

Vehicle insurance

We kept a car in the UK but made a Statutory Off Road Notification (SORN). A car doesn't need to have current motor insurance while in compliance with a SORN.

For our return to the UK we needed to re-arrange insurance on the car before organising an MOT and tax disc to get the car back on the public road. You can drive an insured car directly to and from the MOT test centre without a tax disc.

Motor insurance is not a legal requirement in NZ—but you'd be a fool not to have it. For health professionals in NZ, vehicle insurance is offered by the Medical Assurance Society. With MAS you start off with full "no claims" discount and loose points when you make a claim—you don't have to accrue no claims years first as with most insurers. The AA would be another good choice.

Your driving may be OK; it's other drivers you should worry about

Pensions

While not strictly insurance, paying into a pension fund is "insurance" against helplessness in old age (and a more reliable one than having children!). In the absence of current NHS income, we could not continue to make AVCs or contribute to our NHS Pension in any other way. Our financial advisor felt it was not worth making other pension arrangements for one year. According to BMA membership guidance on Leaving the NHS:

Where a doctor has no intention of returning to the NHS... the preserved pension and lump sum can simply be left in the NHS scheme. They will be increased each year in line with the retail prices index and paid at age 60, or earlier if the doctor dies or becomes too ill to work. The pension and lump sum can be paid overseas... Transferring to or from an overseas scheme may be possible, but this is a complex and specialised area and doctors should seek the advice of the relevant pensions agency.

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