Global Benefits Plans

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Global Employee Insurance Plans Require a Specialized Brokerage

Going global and managing employee insurance coverage requires much more than placing a policy. These policies are highly complex and require total rewards experience and a personal touch for your globally mobile population.

Managing Global Benefit Plans

When your organization has employees posted abroad for long-term assignments or your firm is hiring expatriate employees abroad, whether it is three or three hundred employees, it is critical to manage and keep their benefits consistent, compliant, and well managed. This is definitely not a side project. It is a core part of protecting your people and your organization and meeting your duty of care.

That is what global benefit plan management means to us at TFG Global. We are here to help you meet your global rewards and human resources strategies while bringing structure, oversight, and hands-on service to the global benefits plans. We are also here to help you support your expatriate and internationally mobile workforce, wherever they are based.

Our firm has been sourcing and managing international insurance solutions since 1999, when a domestic client asked us to find coverage for employees working in a war-torn part of Africa. That single request grew into a specialty. Today, our expatriate insurance division, Expat Financial, works alongside our corporate brokerage to manage global benefit plans for multinational corporations, mining and resource companies, NGOs, embassies, and governments, with particular depth in Africa and Asia-Pacific.

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What Is Global Benefit Plan Management?

Global benefit plan management is the ongoing process of designing, sourcing, managing and helping our clients administer the international insurance benefits (health, life, disability, accident, and evacuation coverage, among others) provided to a company’s globally mobile employees.

A Move Away From Expats on Domestic Policies

These policies move multinationals away from placing mobile talent on domestic policies in their destination country to one international policy that provides consistency of coverage. It helps avoid multiple policies for a population that expects and requires coverage that will protect them no matter where they are located.

Business Travel Coverage

We can also assist clients with sourcing and managing robust business travel plans that can provide one consistent policy for your employees around the world on short-term work assignments.

Coordination and Service

Our firm helps bring your international benefits under one coordinated program, with one broker managing the relationships, the renewals, and the service on your behalf. What’s more, we deliver what your expat workforce and global mobility team require – personal service and advocacy on a nearly round-the-clock basis.

International Versus Domestic Group Benefit Plan Requirements

Compared to global benefit plans, domestic plans are relatively easy to obtain and set up, and most domestic-based benefit plan brokers can assist you with these requests. However, the moment your workforce spans multiple countries, or includes expatriates, third-country nationals, trailing dependents, demanding local coverage requirements, and local staff working side by side, the picture becomes far more complicated.

We have found over the years that different insurers, different plan designs, different renewal dates, and different levels of service can leave HR and risk teams with a patchwork of coverage for their long-term assignees. This can also be difficult to manage, harder to control, and difficult to defend if something goes wrong.

Closing the Global Benefits Gap for Multinational Employers

We help your company close the global insurance plan gap by introducing a single, coordinated view of your benefits program, backed by a broker who is doing the ongoing work of keeping it aligned with your organization’s needs. It requires experience, knowledge, international insurance contacts and personal service.

Support Available For Global Benefit Plans

No international benefits plan provider is perfect, and we know that a benefits plan is only as good as the support behind it. We encourage our clients to use the support of the very capable insurers we work with, as they have direct access and established procedures. However, even the best insurers can falter. A key strength of our firm is that we have nearly 24/7 advocacy and support for our clients when they need it.

Whether a plan member is facing a medical emergency overseas, struggling to get a claim approved, or simply unsure how their coverage applies in an unfamiliar country, our team is on hand to step in and help sort things out. We have worked directly with insurers, hospitals, and plan administrators on our clients’ behalf, so that problems get resolved quickly and with a minimum of stress.

An Example of Our Service

For example, our efforts for a mining client with an employee based in Africa ran into difficulties obtaining a medical evacuation approved by the insurance company. We stepped in to unblock the approval, and the employee was successfully evacuated for medical treatment. Timely advocacy from an experienced broker can make the difference in a crisis.

For our corporate clients, this means peace of mind knowing that their people are genuinely looked after, not just insured on paper, wherever their work takes them.

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Why This Matters More Than Ever for Global Employers?

Most employers realize that sending an employee overseas is a significant investment. When an international assignment goes wrong, whether because of a coverage gap, a mishandled claim, or a benefits package that does not meet local expectations, the cost to the organization can run well beyond the price of the insurance itself. A properly managed global benefit plan is one of the more practical ways to protect that investment.

A few forces are making this more pressing for the employers we work with:

  • Rising medical costs

    International medical trend rates continue to climb well ahead of general inflation in many parts of the world. Without a broker actively managing your program, tracking renewals, and benchmarking pricing, that cost pressure lands squarely on your budget.

  • Fragmented insurance coverage

    We have found that some multinationals can end up with benefits arranged country by country, sometimes plan by plan. Sometimes they may even have no single party responsible for the whole picture. There might be a push to place employees under less-than-ideal local plans that don’t fit the needs of a global employee. That fragmentation makes it difficult to compare costs, spot gaps, or negotiate effectively at renewal.

  • Duty of care obligations

    When your team is sending employees on short- or long-term assignments, the human resources department, as well as senior executives, increasingly need to demonstrate that they have taken reasonable steps to protect employees working abroad. This is even more crucial in higher-risk locations, which we happen to have a lot of experience in. That includes making sure medical, evacuation, and, where relevant, war and terrorism coverage is in place and adequate for where people are posted. Also, are you relying just on your domestic broker to assist you in these critical situations when they have no experience in expat benefit plans?

  • Talent attraction and retention

    As noted above, you will find that a well-structured, portable benefit plan is part of what makes an international assignment attractive to the employees you want to keep. Inconsistent or confusing coverage across your workforce can work against you.

  • Administrative burden

    Renewals, certificates, claims questions, and coverage changes take real time. Without a broker managing that on your behalf, it usually falls to HR or global mobility staff who have plenty of other responsibilities.

  • Domestic Plans Abroad

    Some employers will place their foreign assignment employees on the destination country’s domestic policy. This has several drawbacks, mainly because expats require coverage back in their home country, the local plan may not cover their travel or treatment outside the country, and there may be significant currency and tax consequences.

We Are Specialists: Why Global Rewards and HR Managers Should Work with TFG Global

Global rewards and global mobility managers already know that a competitive rewards strategy has to cover far more than salary: retirement benefits, equity, tax planning, schooling allowances, and health and wellness all factor in. What we bring to that picture is the piece most HR teams are not equipped to build on their own: the insurance and risk expertise behind a global benefit plan that actually holds up.

Domestic Brokers – Where They Can Fall Short

This is a point we have made directly to the global rewards and HR community, most recently in an article on why a global benefits strategy needs to be crafted by a specialist. A domestic benefits advisor, however capable within their own market, does not have the contacts, the claims experience, or the working knowledge of coverage in Lagos, Manila, or Kinshasa that a specialist firm has spent decades building. That gap shows up quietly, usually not until an employee needs care in a country the plan was never really designed for.

Why Do International Employers Appoint TFG Global?

A few reasons global rewards and HR managers bring us in specifically, rather than folding global coverage into a domestic benefits mandate:

  • We calibrate coverage to business objectives, not just price

    A global rewards strategy is supposed to help the organization compete for talent and retain it. Only a complete and comprehensive policy can meet the needs of most expats. We help make sure the insurance piece of that strategy supports those goals, rather than being the line item nobody revisits until renewal.

  • We build in risk mitigation from the start

    That means looking at the regulatory compliance across the countries your people are posted in, currency and exchange rate exposure on benefit payments, and the specific insurance protections- medical, evacuation, disability, and special risk- which match the realities of each assignment.

  • We tailor rather than template

    One plan design rarely fits every region, industry, and role in a multinational workforce. TFG Global is here to help identify which benefits are genuinely valued by employees in each location, rather than applying a head-office standard everywhere. Different nationalities, such as American expats, may require coverage that includes the USA while other citizens may not.

  • We understand duty of care as an insurance question, not just a policy statement

    Meeting your duty of care obligations to internationally mobile staff requires a plan built with real knowledge of the destination country’s healthcare system, evacuation infrastructure, and risk profile.

  • We work across the sectors that make up most global rewards mandates

    multinational corporations, mining and resource companies, NGOs and missionary groups, embassies and diplomatic missions, universities, and oil and gas, among others, each with its own patterns of risk that a generalist broker rarely sees often enough to specialize in.

  • We have real-world experience

    Sadly, we have had clients whose employees have been impacted by terrorism, medical crises, evacuations, kidnapping, suicide attacks and much more. That experience in assisting and advocating for clients in the most difficult of circumstances puts us in a different league from other brokerages, even the large consulting houses.

  • Personal Service

    Your team is not going to get passed from one consultant to another. We are small, but nimble and not restricted by bureaucracy. Still, our firm has partners around the globe who we work with, refer to and can assist where required. What’s more, we only work with large global insurance companies who provide the direct support and assistance.

In short, a global rewards strategy is only as strong as the specialist expertise behind its insurance component. That is the seat we are used to sitting in with the HR and global mobility teams we work with.

The TFG Global Approach to Managing Your Program

Large global consultancies approach this problem with scale: big platforms, big data teams, and standardized processes built for organizations with thousands of employees in dozens of countries. That works well for some employers. It is not the only way to do it well, and for many of the organizations we work with, including companies with a handful of expatriates in a challenging region, it is not the right fit at all.

Our approach is built around a smaller, more direct model:

  • One broker, one point of contact. You work with people who know your organization, not a rotating account team or an automated portal. We stay involved in your program from the initial review through every renewal.
  • Independent, unbiased advice. We are not tied to any single insurance company. We search the market on your behalf and are compensated by the insurer you select, or we can work with you on a consulting fee basis if you prefer. Still, the renewal commission basis is the most cost-effective and preferred relationship for clients.
  • Deep experience in the regions that are hardest to place. Our team has placed and managed coverage for employees in high-risk countries around the globe where standard brokers have no experience. If your organization operates in Africa, Asia-Pacific, or other higher-risk regions, that experience matters.
  • Sector knowledge. We work extensively with mining and resource companies, NGOs and humanitarian organizations, embassies and consulates, international schools, and global security firms, in addition to conventional multinational corporations. Each of those sectors has its own patterns of risk and its own expectations for coverage.
  • Personal, human service. Our clients can reach us across time zones, not just during standard business hours. When a claim gets complicated or an employee needs help in a crisis, we are the ones on the phone advocating on your behalf. We offer almost 24/7 support and advocacy to our clients.

What Do TFG’s Global Benefit Plan Management Services Include

  • Program Review and Plan Design

    We start by understanding what you already have in place: which countries, which employees, which insurers, and which gaps exist. From there, we help design a plan structure that fits your workforce, whether that means a single global medical plan covering all your expatriates and third-country nationals, or a more layered approach that blends global coverage with local plans where required.

  • Market Access and Multi-Insurer Sourcing

    Because we are independent, we can source quotes and plan options from a wide range of international insurers, including Cigna Global, Allianz Care, MSH, Aetna Global, IMG, Zurich, MetLife, and others, along with special risk markets through Lloyd’s of London.

    Clients work with us because we have specialized knowledge and contacts built over decades working with clients around the globe. We compare plan designs, pricing, and provider networks so you are choosing between real options, not a single insurer’s recommendation.

  • Financing and Renewal Management of Expat Group Insurance

    International group insurance pricing is not fixed. The inflation rate for medical services in the international arena often runs above 10% per year. This is a huge challenge for global employers. We manage the renewal process on your behalf each year, benchmarking your current terms against the market, negotiating with insurers, and making sure your program continues to reflect your organization’s claims experience and budget.

    For larger groups, we can also discuss alternative financing approaches as your program matures.

  • Special Risk and High-Risk Region Coverage

    For organizations operating in higher-risk countries, we source coverage for war, terrorism, civil unrest, kidnap, ransom and extortion, and other special risks, in addition to standard medical and life coverage. Through our relationship with Special Contingency Risks in London and New York, clients also have access to a 24/7 global threat response centre staffed by former military and intelligence personnel, providing an added layer of support when an incident occurs

  • Claims Analysis

    When it comes to managing an expat group benefits plan, claims analysis is one of the most valuable services that TFG Global can offer. By reviewing loss ratios and utilization by benefit category, and comparing that data against prior renewal periods, we can often help pinpoint exactly what’s driving cost changes and where a plan may need adjusting.

    Our ongoing analysis helps employers make informed decisions at renewal time, rather than simply accepting a premium increase at face value.

  • Running RFPs for Our Multinational Clients

    At TFG Global, we are very experienced in running an RFP for global benefit plan clients. We provide all the support and independence in the process, so your team isn’t burdened. This often means gathering existing plan details, renewal reports, insurer questionnaires, and then going out to the market, including our full network of carriers, including Cigna Global, Allianz Care, MSH, Aetna, William Russell and many more. We can then build out a side-by-side comparison of coverage, pricing, and plan design.

    We take the time to make sure the comparison reflects the client’s actual needs rather than just the lowest premium, since coverage gaps or exclusions can end up costing far more down the road. Once we’ve narrowed the options, we walk the client through the trade-offs so they can make a confident, well-informed decision. If your existing plan has not been market tested or is due for a benefits review, we’d be glad to run this process for you.

    There is no cost for our RFP process as the existing or new insurance company compensates us after we are appointed as the broker of record. We are available to work on a consulting fee basis where required.

  • Emergency Evacuation Planning

    Medical care is not consistent everywhere your people work. We arrange medical evacuation coverage that can move an employee to appropriate care when local treatment is not sufficient, either as a stand-alone plan or built into your broader benefit program.

    We arrange Emergency Response Plans for clients through our evacuation providers that provide valuable instructions and procedures for the client, the insurer, and their evacuation supplier.

  • Claims Advocacy and Ongoing Support

    A benefit plan is only as good as the support behind it when something goes wrong. We stay involved after the policy is placed, helping employees and HR teams navigate claims, resolve service issues with insurers, and answer coverage questions as they come up.

    That advocacy is part of the reason many of our clients originally came to us: an existing global benefit plan that needed a broker who would actually manage it.

  • Global Mobility and Duty of Care Alignment

    We work with global mobility and HR teams to make sure benefit coverage lines up with your organization’s broader mobility policies and duty of care commitments, including coverage for dependents, third-country nationals, and, where regulations permit, local national staff.

Who We Manage Global Benefit Plans For

We work with organizations of very different sizes and structures, typically with groups ranging from three employees up to several hundred. Our long-standing client base includes mining and resource companies such as Ivanhoe Mines, Endeavour Silver, and Denarius Metals, along with organizations in food and agriculture, education, and international development. More broadly, we manage global benefit plans for:

  • Multinational corporations expanding into new markets.
  • Mining, energy, and resource companies operating in remote or high-risk regions.
  • NGOs and humanitarian organizations
  • Embassies, consulates, and government agencies
  • International schools and universities
  • Global security firms
  • Organizations with just a handful of expatriate staff who still need a properly structured plan.
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Africa and Asia-Pacific: Where We Have Particular Depth

Our roots as a firm are tied to placing coverage in some of the world’s more difficult regions, and Africa and Asia-Pacific remain a core focus of our practice today. We understand the practical realities of managing benefits for staff posted to these regions: which insurers will actually write coverage, what local regulations require, where evacuation infrastructure is strong or thin, and how to structure a plan that protects employees without becoming unworkable to administer. If your organization has people working across multiple African or Asia-Pacific countries, our experience in these markets is often what sets a plan we manage apart from one purchased off the shelf.

Why Employers Choose TFG Global Over a Standard Broker

Any broker can place a policy. Managing a global benefit plan well requires staying involved after the paperwork is signed: watching renewal terms, catching gaps before they become problems, and being reachable when an employee needs help in a country where things do not always move quickly.

  • We are fully independent and accountable to you, not to any single insurance company.
  • Our advice comes at no additional cost, since we are compensated by the insurer you choose, or through a transparent consulting fee if you prefer that arrangement.
  • We have direct relationships with insurers and underwriters most domestically focused brokers rarely deal with, including special risk markets at Lloyd’s.
  • Our team is available across time zones, not limited to a nine-to-five schedule.
  • We are the same firm your organization deals with year after year. There is no account team rotation to manage.

Appointing TFG Global on Existing Global Benefit Plans

You do not need to start from scratch to bring us in. We are frequently appointed as broker of record on global benefit plans that are already in place, often because an employer wants a broker who will actually manage the program rather than renew it each year.

TFG Global Appointed on Existing Policy: A Success Story

Most recently, in October 2025, we were appointed broker of record for a large Toronto-headquartered mining company on its existing global benefit plan. Once appointed, we reviewed the program in detail and identified coverage gaps that had gone unaddressed. We worked with the client to enhance benefits where they fell short of what their expatriate workforce needed. We also brought overall medical rates down, while retaining their incumbent insurer, Cigna, so there was no disruption to the coverage employees were already used to. Alongside the medical program, we implemented a single, much more robust global business travel plan to replace the arrangement they had previously been working with.

That is a fairly typical pattern for a broker-of-record appointment with us: we do not require you to change insurers to bring us in, and we are usually able to identify meaningful improvements, whether in coverage, cost, or plan structure, within the first renewal cycle. If your organization already has a global benefit plan and you are simply looking for better management of it, that is a straightforward conversation to have.

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Frequently Asked Questions

No. In most broker-of-record appointments, we retain your existing insurer and take over management of the relationship, the renewal process, and ongoing service. Our recent appointment on a large mining company’s global plan is a good example: we kept their incumbent insurer, Cigna, in place while improving their coverage and reducing their medical rates.

We start with a full review of your current program: coverage, rates, plan design, and any gaps or service issues. From there, we typically identify opportunities to enhance benefits, correct gaps, and improve pricing at the next renewal, all while keeping disruption to your employees to a minimum.

A global benefit plan brings coverage for your internationally mobile employees under one coordinated program, typically managed by a single broker, rather than a collection of separate local policies with different insurers, renewal dates, and service levels. It gives your organization one place to go for oversight, reporting, and claims support, while still allowing for coverage that reflects local realities where needed.

We can typically source a global benefit plan for organizations with as few as three employees working outside their home country. There is no upper limit; we manage programs for groups ranging from a handful of expatriates to several hundred employees across multiple countries.

In most cases, no. We are compensated by the insurer your organization selects, so our advice and ongoing management come at no additional cost to you. For some organizations, particularly larger or more complex programs, we can also work on a consulting fee basis. We will discuss which structure makes sense for your situation.

Yes. This is one of the areas where our experience runs deepest. We have sourced and managed coverage for organizations operating in Afghanistan, Iraq, South Sudan, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Somalia, Yemen, and other higher-risk locations, including war, terrorism, kidnap, ransom and extortion coverage where required.

We manage the renewal process on your behalf each year: reviewing your claims experience, benchmarking your current plan against the market, negotiating terms with your insurer, and presenting you with options if a change makes sense. You are not left to manage that process alone or to accept whatever terms an insurer proposes.

We can typically arrange coverage for expatriates, third-country nationals, and, where local regulations permit, local national employees working alongside them. We will help you understand what is possible for your specific workforce and locations.

Let’s Talk About Your Global Benefit Plan

Whether you already have a global benefit plan in place and want a broker who will actually manage it, or you are setting one up for the first time as your organization expands internationally, we would like to hear from you. Contact us to review your current program, or request a quote to see what a coordinated global benefit plan could look like for your organization. Please note that we will require an employee census spreadsheet to provide quotes from the market.

You can also download our corporate brochure for a fuller look at how we work with multinational employers, mining and resource companies, NGOs, and governments around the world.