\n You need a visa, health insurance, and your investments. And read my two articles about
\n New Zealand Superannuation from last year:\n <\/p>\n
How you pay for healthcare in your new home is crucial, but NZ Super is just the beginning in planning a retirement overseas.<\/p>\n
There are other tricky questions that I will cover over the next two columns. Do you still pay tax in New Zealand? What happens when you become too frail to look after yourself? What about your will? Is it legally valid overseas? Will there be inheritance tax in your country of residence?<\/p>\n
Healthcare: What happens when you\u2019re not in the NZ system?<\/p>\n
We\u2019re spoiled in New Zealand, with a pretty good health system.<\/a> If you\u2019re retiring to Australia, you will get some free healthcare. But for most countries, you need to fund your own treatment, and that means getting health insurance.<\/p>\n AdvertisementAdvertise with NZME.<\/a><\/p>\n There are global policies such as Cigna Global, Bupa Global and Allianz Partners. For this article, I\u2019ve used Thailand as a test case. A hospital-care-only policy with one of these providers, without outpatient care, started from $7180 a year for a 70-year-old and $10,887 for an 80-year-old.<\/p>\n It can be a lot cheaper to buy local health insurance. It requires a leap of faith because you don\u2019t necessarily have access to an Ombudsman service as we do here. I checked AXA Thailand, a globally owned, local insurer. A 70-year-old retiree on an O-X retirement visa would pay around $2200 a year, with an excess of $5000. The website would not give a quote for 80-year-olds.<\/p>\n What about travel insurance?<\/p>\n I heard of one retiree who would fly back to New Zealand annually and take out an annual travel policy, so I checked if terms and conditions (Ts&Cs) of New Zealand policies supported that workaround. AA Insurance\u2019s 365-day policy<\/a> for a 70-year-old retiree with no pre-existing medical conditions was around $3000. However, the Ts&Cs required that New Zealand be your normal place of residence, where you planned to return. Insurers find out if you try to pull a fast one on them. Then your $100,000 medical bill isn\u2019t covered.<\/p>\n