The short answer

Review your protection every two or three years, and always after a major life change: moving country, marriage or a new relationship, a new baby, divorce or separation, buying property, changing jobs or starting a business, a change in your health, children leaving home, retirement, an inheritance or a bereavement. For each one, check four things: is the amount of cover still right; does the cover still work where you live; are beneficiaries, trusts and nominations current; and do your wills still say what you want in every country. Add cover when responsibilities grow, reduce it carefully when they shrink — and never cancel a policy before its replacement is in place. Lawrence will run the review with you, free.

Why protection goes out of date

Protection is designed around a snapshot of your life: your income, your debts, your family and where you live. As soon as any of those change, the snapshot is out of date. The problem is that nothing tells you. Insurers don't know you've had a baby; pension schemes don't know you've remarried; your UK will doesn't know you've bought a condo in Pattaya.

Out-of-date protection usually fails in one of three ways: there isn't enough cover for the family's real costs; the cover doesn't work in the country where you now live; or the money goes to the wrong person, slowly. A regular review catches all three.

Life events and what to check

The most common triggers for a review, and the first things to look at.

A general guide — your own needs depend on your family, income, debts and where you live. Lawrence will review them with you, free.

Moving country

A move abroad is the life change most likely to break existing protection, because so much of it is tied to the country you leave. A standard UK health policy stops being valid once you live abroad. Many UK, US and EU life insurers won't cover people living permanently overseas. Employer cover may end with the old job. And the NHS, which many British families think of as a back-up, depends on where you live.

What to check

• Health insurance — international cover from the day you arrive, with an area of cover that suits where you might live next.
• Life and income cover — does each policy still cover you abroad? Tell every insurer you're moving.
• Wills — make a Thai will for Thai assets, alongside your UK will.
• Emergency money — accessible in both countries and in each partner's name.

Our guides to family financial protection when relocating and policy portability for international families go through every step.

Marriage and new relationships

Marriage changes your legal position more than almost any other life event — and for expats, it can change it in two countries at once.

In England and Wales, a will is automatically revoked when you marry or enter a civil partnership, unless it was made in contemplation of that marriage. Many people don't know this, and are surprised to find that the will they made years ago no longer exists. If you marry — in Thailand or anywhere else — you'll usually need a new UK will.

In Thailand, a married spouse is a statutory heir and usually owns half of the marital property. An unmarried partner isn't an heir at all, and may have no rights to your Thai assets without a will. If you're in a long-term relationship but not married, nominations, trusts and wills in both countries are essential.

What to check

• New wills in each country where you hold assets.
• Pension nominations naming your new spouse or partner.
• Life cover — is it enough for two, and is it in trust for the right people?
• Health cover — add your partner, or check they have their own.

A new baby

A new child is the biggest single increase in protection needs most families ever face. Overnight, someone depends on you for 18 years or more — and in Thailand, that usually means international school fees. At a mid-range school costing around ฿825,000 a year, thirteen years of fees comes to more than ฿10.7 million at today's prices, before fee rises.

What to check

• Life cover — enough to cover school fees, living costs and the home until the child is independent.
• Income protection — especially if one parent stops or reduces work.
• Health insurance — add the baby promptly; many plans have rules about when newborns are covered.
• Guardians — name them in your wills, in both countries if needed.
• Trusts — so money for a child is managed by trustees, not paid to a minor.
• Education savings — the earlier you start, the more growth does the work.

A regular savings plan started at birth has time on its side. Growing at 8% a year over 13 years, more than 40% of the final sum can come from growth rather than your own contributions.

Compare schools on our international school finder, covering 178 schools across Thailand, and read our guide to saving for international school fees in Thailand.

Where to start

A free review of your protection after any life change, and introductions to specialists for new or different cover.

Divorce and separation

Divorce unpicks many financial arrangements, but not all of them — and the ones it leaves behind can cause serious problems later.

In England and Wales, divorce doesn't revoke a will. Instead, the former spouse is treated as if they had died first, so gifts to them and their appointment as executor fail. That may leave the rest of the will working in ways you never intended. Separation without divorce changes nothing at all: an estranged spouse can still inherit under your will or the intestacy rules.

Policies and pensions are separate again. A pension nomination naming an ex-spouse isn't automatically cancelled by divorce. A life policy owned jointly, or written in trust with a former partner as beneficiary or trustee, may need to be restructured — and a divorce settlement may require you to keep certain cover in place to protect maintenance or children.

What to check

• Wills in every country — make new ones.
• Pension nominations — update every scheme, UK and overseas.
• Life policies and trusts — ownership, trustees and beneficiaries.
• Health cover — who is covered under whose policy, especially children.
• Any cover the settlement requires — and how long it must last.

Buying a home or taking on debt

A new mortgage or loan is a new responsibility your family would inherit. If you borrow to buy a home in the UK, Thailand or elsewhere, check that your life cover would clear the debt — or at least that your family could keep paying it. Decreasing term cover, which falls in line with a repayment mortgage, can be a cost-effective way to protect a loan.

Buying property in Thailand also raises inheritance questions. Thai assets are dealt with under Thai rules, and Thai bank accounts are frozen on death until a Thai court appoints an administrator. A foreign heir who inherits Thai land must usually sell it within a set period, and condos have their own rules. A Thai will, made when you buy, saves your family months of delay. Our guide to what happens to your estate if you die overseas explains the process.

Don't forget general insurance: home contents cover for your belongings, and — if you own the building — buildings insurance too. We take leads for home insurance and introduce specialists.

Changing jobs, starting a business or stopping work

Employer benefits can be the biggest hidden part of a family's protection — and they change every time your work does.

Leaving an employer

Group health, life cover and income protection usually end on your last day. Before you leave, find out exactly what stops, whether any cover can be continued individually, and arrange replacement cover so there's no gap. A health condition that developed under the group plan may be excluded on a new individual policy, so ask about continuation options early.

Joining a new employer

New benefits may let you reduce personal cover — but check who's covered, how much, and for how long. Benefits that end when the job does shouldn't be your family's only protection.

Going self-employed or starting a business

There's no employer sick pay, so income protection becomes much more important. Business owners should also think about key person cover and protecting business debts. Our guide to critical illness and income protection explains the options.

One partner stopping work

The working partner's cover may need to rise, and the non-working partner should still have cover of their own — if they died or fell ill, childcare and help at home would cost money.

A change in your health

A new diagnosis changes the rules of protection review. Normally, reviewing means shopping around for better value. After a health change, the most valuable thing you own may be the cover you already have.

A policy you took out while healthy has already accepted you on its terms. If you cancel it and apply elsewhere, a new insurer is likely to exclude the condition, charge more or decline you altogether — and many health plans exclude pre-existing conditions or cover them only after a waiting period. Local Thai plans also often cap the age at which you can join.

What to do

• Don't cancel existing cover without specialist advice.
• Check whether you can claim — a critical illness or income protection policy may pay out.
• Keep paying premiums — a lapsed policy can rarely be restored.
• Update your will and trusts while you can make decisions comfortably.
• Consider lasting powers of attorney so someone can act for you if needed.

Children leaving school or home

When children finish school, the biggest single reason for a large amount of life cover often disappears. This is usually the moment protection needs start to fall — but not straight away.

University can be one of the most expensive stages of all, especially overseas, so protection that covers tuition and living costs until graduation is worth keeping. Children moving off a family health plan need their own cover; many insurers let them transfer without new medical questions if they apply in time. And young adults studying or working abroad may need cover that meets local rules.

Once children are independent, review whether you still need the same level of life cover. Reducing it — or letting a term policy expire as planned — can free up money for retirement savings. Our guide to planning for overseas university fees covers the university years.

Retirement

Retirement changes protection needs more than any other stage. Income protection usually ends, because there's no earned income to protect. Life cover needs often fall as debts are cleared and children are independent. But two needs usually grow.

Health cover becomes more important and more expensive with age. Many local Thai plans cap entry ages in the 60s, so a plan that can stay with you for life is valuable — don't let it lapse in the years before retirement. Estate planning also matters more: from 6 April 2027, unused UK pension funds will form part of your estate for inheritance tax, which may change how much you draw, who you nominate, and whether life cover written in trust could help pay a future tax bill.

Our guide to planning for healthcare costs in retirement covers later-life health cover in detail.

Bereavement, inheritance and caring for parents

After a bereavement

If a partner dies, the surviving partner's protection needs change overnight — and so do the beneficiaries on every policy. Update wills, nominations and trusts once you're able to, and check that the family's health cover continues. If a named trustee or beneficiary has died, replace them.

An inheritance or windfall

A large inheritance may reduce how much life cover you need, but it may also increase a future inheritance tax bill. It's a good moment to review both protection and investments — and to move money to Thailand at a good rate rather than the bank's.

Caring for parents

Many expats in their 40s and 50s find themselves supporting parents back home — with money, time or both. That's a new financial responsibility, and it may mean flying home at short notice, reducing work or paying for care. Check that your cover and emergency fund reflect it.

How protection needs change through life

Everyone's life is different, but protection needs tend to follow a familiar curve: rising as responsibilities build, peaking while children are at school and debts are high, then falling towards retirement — while health cover becomes steadily more important.

Starting out

Few dependants and modest debts mean life cover needs are usually small. Health insurance and income protection matter most, because your ability to earn is your biggest asset. Cover bought young is usually cheaper and easier to get.

Building a family

Marriage, children, a home and school fees push protection needs to their highest. This is when life cover, income protection, trusts, guardians and education savings all need attention at once.

The middle years

Children move through school and towards university; debts start to fall; savings and pensions grow. Needs usually start to plateau, and regular reviews keep cover matched to what remains.

Approaching and in retirement

Income protection ends, life cover needs fall, and the focus moves to health cover for later life, estate planning and making sure money passes to the right people efficiently.

Seeing your protection as a plan that moves through these stages — rather than a one-off purchase — is the simplest way to stay properly covered without overpaying.

How to run a protection review

A protection review doesn't need to take long. It works best as a simple, repeatable process.

1. Gather everything — every life, health, income and critical illness policy, employer benefit, pension and will, with policy numbers and contacts.
2. Write down what's changed — family, home, work, health, country, debts and plans.
3. Work out today's needs — debts, years of living costs, school and university fees, and an income for a surviving partner.
4. Subtract what you already have — savings, existing cover, employer benefits and pension death benefits.
5. Check each policy still works where you live, and that premiums are affordable.
6. Check beneficiaries, trusts, nominations and wills in every country.
7. Decide what to add, keep or reduce — and get quotes before changing anything.
8. Diarise the next review — in two or three years, or at the next big change.

When — and how — to reduce cover safely

Reviews don't always mean buying more. As children grow up and debts fall, many families find they're paying for more cover than they need. Reducing it can free up money for retirement or education savings. But it's worth doing carefully.

• Reduce rather than cancel — many insurers let you lower the amount of cover on an existing policy.
• Think about your health — if it has changed, an existing policy may be impossible to replace.
• Keep health insurance — it usually becomes more valuable with age, not less.
• Consider future inheritance tax — cover in trust can help a family pay a tax bill.
• Get advice before you stop paying — a lapsed policy rarely comes back.

The most common mistakes

• Never reviewing — cover bought for one life, still running in another.
• Forgetting that marriage revokes a UK will in England and Wales.
• Leaving an ex-partner on a pension nomination.
• Not increasing cover after a new baby — when school fees are on the way.
• Relying on employer cover through a job change.
• Cancelling cover after a diagnosis — and being unable to replace it.
• Letting health cover lapse before retirement.
• Changing cover before new cover is in place.

Three real-world examples

These are illustrations, not real clients.

Ben, 36 — married in Thailand, then a baby

Ben's UK will left everything to his parents. When he married in Thailand, his UK will was revoked; when his son was born, his life cover — sized for his old UK flat — was far too small for a family facing international school fees. In one review he made new UK and Thai wills, named guardians, increased his life cover and wrote it in trust, and started an education savings plan.

Claire, 48 — divorced, two teenagers

Claire's pension nomination still named her ex-husband, and her life policy was in a trust with him as a trustee. She updated the nomination, appointed new trustees, made new wills and checked that her children's health cover continued under her own policy.

Paul and Sue — approaching retirement

With their children independent and mortgage cleared, Paul and Sue reduced their life cover rather than cancelling it, keeping a smaller amount in trust to help with future inheritance tax. They kept their international health plan, which now matters more than ever, and updated their pension nominations ahead of the 2027 changes.

Your life-change protection checklist

1. Is the amount of cover right for today's family, debts and school fees?
2. Does every policy work in the country where you now live?
3. Are beneficiaries, trusts and nominations current on every policy and pension?
4. Are your wills up to date in every country where you hold assets?
5. Who is covered by health insurance — and is anyone missing?
6. What happens if your job ends — is there a gap?
7. Is there emergency money in each partner's name?
8. When is your next review? Put it in the diary.

Keeping your records safe

A protection review brings together your most sensitive documents in one place: policies, medical history, wills and account details. Store them securely, share them only with people who need them, be wary of unexpected calls about your policies, and use a private, protected connection when you log in to insurer and pension portals on public Wi-Fi.

How we researched this guide

This guide draws on The Gazette on the effects of marriage and divorce on wills; Which? (July 2026) on life insurance trusts and income protection; interactive investor (2026) on pension nominations and the 2027 inheritance tax change; and our protection, health, estate and education guides, including Thailand Starter Kit (August and September 2026), Thaiger (July 2026), Pacific Prime (August 2026), ThaiLawOnline (October 2026) and WeCovr (October 2026). Checked 14 October 2026. JLIT takes leads for insurance and introduces specialists; it does not sell insurance. This guide is general information, not personal financial, insurance or legal advice.