CR&Cie - Germany wide (health)insurance and investment advice for Expats

[CR&Cie 6]

 

The team of insurance and investment experts at Chambervelt, Rooselain & Cie. Ltd. – including Toytown’s well known “Starshollow” - offer you independent advice and quotations service on all kinds of insurance and financial planning for English-speaking clients in Germany. 

We are known in the Expat community to be THE experts for health insurance – and can even offer a special group tariff for self-employed Expats coming to Germany together with ASEIG (association of self-employed Expats in Germany) which no other broker has access to.  Furthermore we are specialized in catering to US-nationals living in Germany with pension planning (including 401k-consolidation and IRA-advice). And for Expats who still have a pension pot in the UK and wonder, if they are better off moving it out of the UK (QROPS-transfer) or leaving it in the UK for good, we can offer fully independent and unbiased QROPS-advice together with our British partners – entirely fee-based. Last but not least, if you have been tricked into a bad QROPS transfer to some of those overpriced offshore plans, we can act as QROPS-saver for you by helping you to escape this trap.

 

Click to make a free enquiry. The following services are included:

 

 

• Health insurance  (German, International with §193 VVG compliance and a special group tariff for self-employed Expats in Germany which is compliant with both § 193 VVG and § 257 SGB V, the latter often being important for Visa-applications)

• 3rd party liability insurance, renter's, home owner's, legal, disability and life insurance

• Private, corporate, and tax saving pension plans for employees and self-employed

·         QROPS transfers, Offshore pension plans with fair and transparent cost structures

·         US-pension consolidation (401k, 403b, ROTH-IRA and IRA)

• Investment advice – fee-based starting at 100.000 EUR investment volume - with a strong focus on passive investment funds (ETFs, Dimensional Fund Advisors ) in order to keep your costs low and generate more profit for you

Here you’ll find an overview which insurances you really need

 

Click here for our video

 

About Chambervelt, Rooselain & Cie. Ltd.:

 

German laws, rules and regulations are the most complicated in the world. Germans invented red-tape-administration! As an annoying side-effect for Expats, simple issues like finding the right health insurance, custom-tailored pension plans or alternative investment opportunities which fit your personal profile can be very tiring without some expert advice. Furthermore: Your financial life is as individual as a fingerprint – one size does not fit all to this regards. That's why having your own C R & Cie. financial advisor is so important in order to get a really personalized, financial plan based on your daily needs, long-time objectives, goals and dreams.

 

C R & Cie. is a specialized service fully streamlined for and dedicated to the ExPat-community in Germany and not just an appendix to some standard bank or insurance. We are duly registered and licensed as an insurance broker and financial advisor. If you do not yet understand the vast and important difference between an tied insurance agent and independent insurance broker like us, check HERE on our website for an explanation

 

 

 You can also see all our licenses/regulation for offering financial advice in Germany here: https://www.crcie.com/financial-advice/erstinformation-legal-info/ . This is the basic information every advisor needs to disclose to you upon first contact. If you do not receive such information from other advisors, demand it! If it is not provided, the advice is probably not licensed and thus not only illegal but also without proper regulation in case you find yourself the victim of malpractice.

 

The range of services and the completely independent advice are the result of more than 12 successful years focusing entirely on the needs and wishes of ExPats. If you want to have some references about the quality of our advice and services, we’ll be happy to provide you with recommendations from other ExPats who have become our clients since 2005 – or check out the real and unedited comments from other Toytowners below.

 

The advisory service is free of direct charges for insurance advice- for pension planning we offer both fee-based advice and commission-based advice. When it comes to investment advice, we recommend an approach based on inexpensive passive investment funds (ETFs, Dimensional) and therefore only offer fee-based advice.

We do offer service and advice either by Email, phone  and Videoconference/Skype for all of Germany and 1:1-meeting in the Munich area (main office), Stuttgart and Berlin. Every couple of months we also organize meetings in Frankfurt and other cities upon request.

 

Contact:

 

 If you like to be contacted in confidence, please send an e-mail to info@crcie.com or use our contact form from the website. We will answer you within 48 hours at the latest. For direct contact please call 0700 226525688 (from within Germany). 

Note that all quotations and advisory services for insurances are usually free of direct charges. Any fees we’ll charge you for pension planning and investment advice will be disclosed and quoted to you in advance, so that there you’ll never need to fear being charged any fees until you have been informed so beforehand and explicitly agreed to it.

 

 

[BadDoggie 1,575]

Highly recommended.

 

woof.

[Guest]

Seconded. Glyn sorted out my health insurance in double-quick-time, extremely helpful, professional people and very friendly service, would recommend to everyone!

[IvoMV 258]

I heartily recommend C R & Cie. for insurance advice for the English speaking community in Germany.

In fact, just yesterday I recommended it to a friend of mine in Munich (who did not yet have a liability insurance).

 

Due to the way the system works in Germany, you pay the same whether you go through an independent broker or not - therefore I think the correct choice is to always get free advice from experts, particularly when you are not completely familiar with the language (therefore some of the cash is diverted from the insurance company to someone who helped you, but the insurer also gets a client - seems like a decent deal for everyone involved).

 

My experience with C R & Cie. was very pleasant. The person that assisted me through most of the process was always very nice and helpful and in perfect English (I suspect she is a native speaker, but I briefly dealt also with someone else from C R & Cie. and he also had fluent English skills). She was also very efficient as I got my liability insurance rather fast.

 

I got advice on which insurances were better suited for my needs and afterwards I also got assistance in filling in the necessary forms - even though I could translate most of the stuff myself, it was nice to have someone who understands insurances.

I was definitively left with the impression that their priority is in helping you get what you need / want over just selling you insurances (the best example of this was with the income protection insurance, which I ended up not insuring myself with, and at no point felt "pressured" to take the insurance despite the considerable time I spend discussing it with them).

 

I think it is worth mentioning that I was so satisfied with them that I decided to try their financial advisory as well.

 

I think that was a rather thorough description of why I recommend them, but if anyone has any doubts feel free to PM me about it.

Ivo.

[red_indian 17]

Highly recommended. If you are looking for someone who understands the German Tax or Health Insurance system then I would get in contact with these guys. They can help you out with Health Insurances and many other financial issues.

 

They have everyday experience with people from outside Germany who get stuck either because of a language issue or simply because the German system is too complicated written in complicated German. These guys will help you out.

 

Thanks Pat. You guys are great.

[Guest]

Hi everyone! I would just like to say that Patrick proved to be extremely helpful when assisting with the issue with my international health policy from Expatriate Health Care.

 

Expatriate was recommended by a UK based umbrella company for health insurance products here in Germany. Soon after I arrived in Germany I realised that my Expatriate health policy was not actually recognised as being a valid form of insurance. (They are not registered with BFAN).

 

The health insurance "check in the box" procedure\validation for freelance it contractors when a work permit is issued is different to what happens when you choose to change to a local health provider. Changing to a local provider would be inevitable for somebody staying long term here in Germany (coverage and quality of product, family prospects etc) so is something anybody choosing to stay would encounter. International health policies are largely for people here in a temporary situation for work etc. If the international product is not recognised then you are not liable for the tax break associated with having private insurance. So, for one to work for a say a couple of years and then choose to change to a local policy and then find out that you are liable for a huge tax debt could potentially be disastrous - something to be aware of!!! Expatriate seem to argue concerning the validity of the product, yet at the same time offer to guarantee for their product.

 

Pat assisted me through this process with my umbrella company who recommended the health policy as well as with Expatriate themselves. An outstanding service from a native english speaker with extensive knowledge and experience with the laws hear in germany...As well as an all round great guy :-)

[sonwon 2]

Paul is very helpful and even took extra steps to answer my questions. Recommended to anyone that has questions or needs assistance with German insurance.

[psychonaut 44]

On 26 August I tried contacting Patrick Ott through the web form on his Toytown Germany business directory entry to ask about insurance and financial products. Though I did get an automated acknowledgment of my message, and his business directory page says enquiries are answered within 48 hours, I never heard back from him.

[bohemka 4,338]

I do know he's been incredibly busy. He's a top guy and a font of helpful information, so maybe just give him another poke.

[Für Elise 3,847]

We're waiting for him to get back in touch with us too, psychonaut, but he's incredibly busy right now. Maybe send him a follow up?

[HellesAngel 1,889]

August is a traditional holiday month in much of Europe and if you don't hear from someone during this time then don't take it personally. Pat is now back from his working 'holiday' and crawling his way through his workload.

 

FWIW: I highly recommend Pat for insurance questions, especially health & personal liability, as well as investment advice and whatever other money related questions you may have. If he had helped me with my health insurance when I arrived here, rather than the thieving bastard Foglino who signed me up with DKV, I'd be 20,000 euro richer now. To contradict fishbeck above with a small correction - Pat isn't a native English speaker, he's a native of these parts (which gives him a major advantage in understanding the gobbledegook the health insurance companies trot out), but you'd be hard pressed to tell ;)

[Starshollow 6,069]

Psychonaut: I am very sorry if an inquiry remains unanswered. While indeed it is/was until this week the high-tide of the summer holiday time down here in the bavarian south, we usually follow up swiftly with a first reply, if only to say it may take longer. I checked our inbox and could not find anything left unanswered/unreplied from August 26th but another thing that happens often is that if you use a GMAIL. GOOGLEMAIL or HOTMAIL account our first reply ends in your junkmail filter because of our email signature containing jpegs and links to websites.

We have had clients complaining about lack of replies where we could prove that we sent them two mails which both ended and vanished in their junk-mail-filter. This is not me trying to avoid responsibility if the reply was not made in the end, but just one explanation of what could have happened as it has actually happened like this in the past.

 

But if you do send me a PM or a short email to me directly at patrick.o.ott@crcie.com I will make sure you'll get an answer at once - and if I find out that no reply was made at all, a nice bottle of wine as our way of saying "Sorry" -HellesAngle tried the wine some time ago and liked it a lot :-)

 

To all others if you ever find our speed lacking: yes, this sometimes can happen, either during holiday times or during certain high-tide times in business, like at the end of the year or so. We try to organize incoming mails in line of priority from what we can see in those mails - if you have not heard from us within 48 hrs, please just send a more or less friendly reminder as we also have every day inquiries who seem to have been sent out to all advertising brokers at once and when we answer we never see a reply either like: thanks, but John Gunn was faster and took care of it already or something like that.

 

In the end it sometimes may take longer than with brokers who have not so many clients and inquiries to get the advice from us - but the fact is that there is a reason why so many people come to us and why so many "so-called advisors" can answer at once for lack of other inquiries... and that is the total quality of the advice we give.

 

Btw: Psychonaut - since you are Hungarian, one of our advisors is also a native of Hungary and can also communicate with you in Hungarian if you prefer...

Same is available in Turkish, Finnish and, yes, even in Irish :-)

 

Cheerio

I am a professional independent insurance broker, financial adviser, and authorised advertiser. Contact me.

[inPoster 14]

Oh good, I didn't add my 2 cents about not getting a reply. These above posts say it all:-))

 

I

[Starshollow 6,069]

Hi IN-Poster - working on your reply, it is just a bit more complicated than many others...

 

Cheerio

I am a professional independent insurance broker, financial adviser, and authorised advertiser. Contact me.

[Siobhan B 8]

Want to say a big Thank you and would highly recommend these guys.. I was contacted by Paul who helped me so much and giving my "unusual" circumstances in Germany was able to make Health insurance simpler and my life easier. Thank you Paul and you and your company does a fantastic job.. keep it up!!

[Gibson 1]

Big thanks to Paul who was very helpful and professional. It was great to be "hand held" through the maze of German health insurance and documentation. Keep up the good work!

[catbwiesbaden 0]

I highly recommend Paul Downes. As a U.S. citizen living in Germany with a U.K. mom (US perm resident), I was lost as to how to get her health insurance here, especially since her move here was rather sudden. Paul was able to provide thorough and quick guidance. He even called the UK internal pension service himself to make sure I wouldn't have any problems. I had contacted all three of the Toytown recommended insurance professionals, and Paul was the only one to respond. His friendly and professional service made a difficult situation much less stressful.

[Fedor 0]

Thank you very much for the information you provided me with. Patrick at Chambervelt, Rooselain & Cie. Ltd. responded quickly and adequately to my request. Clear, to-the-point and in perfect English. Highly recommended.

[adl30uk 3]

I would also like to say Thank You very much to Pat at C R & Cie Ltd. He was very helpful and exceedingly quick with his replies to my many emails. The information he provided was excellent and I would definitely highly recommend him and his Company.

[Screeper 2]

Would just like to add another *thumbs-up* for C R & Cie.

Outstanding service.

Highly recommended.

 

Just a side note: My gmail account was very suspicious of the initial reply from Paul at C R & Cie and it ended up in my 'Junk Mail' - after I flagged his mail as "not -spam" it has come through to my inbox with no problems.