Multinational Pooling and the need for Admitted Insurance for Local Nationals
Rule #1 in international employee benefits. Local national employees need to be insured by locally admitted insurers (not offshore plans) in a benefit structure that is compliant with local labor laws. Multinational pooling can certainly help accomplish this.
For more about what multinational pooling is, please see the post under Multinational Pooling General and Misc. Each pooling company will have wholly owned or partnership companies in each country where you employ local nationals that are admitted insurers in those countries.
Using non-admitted solutions for local nationals in many countries is a crime. With multinational pooling networks, you are assured the network partner company in each country is admitted. In addition to avoiding criminal penalty, using admitted companies have other advantages such as the ability to take a tax deduction on premium paid for example.
Companies that have a smaller number of local nationals that do not participate in a multinational pooling arrangement may even be tempted to place local nationals under an offshore expatriate insurance program. Avoid this if at all possible. Many of the pooling companies today have smaller employee per country needs than existed 5 years ago.
If you have a small number of local nationals in several countries, please contact McKinley International Risk Management to see if there is a pooling network that would meet your needs.
