Retiring overseas at 75 and over: insurance, shorter stays and coming home

The order of decisions for you

After 75, the first questions are what you can insure and how you’d get home if you needed to. Where you could live comes after that, and a shorter stay is often what works.

1. Insurance comes before the place. A broker or insurer can quote the actual trip: your age, the length of stay, the country and your conditions declared. Some policies also limit trip length by age. CHOICE reports one insurer limits worldwide trips to 35 days for travellers over 80, and trips beyond the Pacific to 90 days for those over 65. Our guide to travel insurance for long stays sets out what to ask.
2. See your doctor at least 8 weeks before. Smartraveller suggests a check-up then. Ask for a letter listing your medicines, their strength and the daily dose.
3. Plan medicines for the whole trip. Services Australia says PBS medicines can’t be posted to you overseas, and it’s illegal for family to send them. Carry them in their original packs, and check they’re legal in every country you pass through. Our guide to taking PBS medicines overseas has the detail.
4. Keep it under 12 weeks to keep the Pension Supplement. Services Australia says you must tell it if you’ll be away more than 6 weeks. Our guide to the 6, 12 and 26-week rules explains each point.
5. Write down the coming-home plan. Who would you call, how would you get home, and where would you stay? Medicare never pays for treatment overseas, so getting home for care is part of the plan. Our guide to coming home covers your pension and Medicare when you return.
6. Talk to family before you book. Give someone at home your dates, address, insurance details and a copy of the doctor’s letter.
7. Shortlist one or two places. These suit a shorter stay at this age:
   • Penang: 90 days on arrival covers a 12-week winter without a visa application.
   • New Zealand: one of the 11 countries with a reciprocal health care agreement, so medically necessary public care is covered there. Smartraveller says this doesn’t replace travel insurance.

If care is the bigger question rather than a holiday, our guide to aged care overseas or at home compares the two.

A worked example

An example, not a real person.

Graham is 77 and widowed. He owns his unit in Perth, gets the maximum single rate of the Age Pension, and wants ten weeks in Penang over the Australian winter, as he did at 70.

	Per month
His Age Pension, single maximum (A$1,237.70 a fortnight)	about A$2,680
A month in Penang for one person, rent included (our estimate)	about A$1,750

Pension rate from Services Australia (20 September 2026). How we worked out our estimate: Numbeo’s living costs for one person (without rent), plus a one-bedroom city-centre rent, plus 30% for eating out, local trips and extras. For a couple we multiply living costs by 1.8. We converted at the Reserve Bank of Australia’s average exchange rate for the 12 months to September 2026 (A$1 = 2.80 ringgit, for example). Health insurance isn’t included. Numbeo’s Penang page was last updated 15 October 2026.

What’s different from when he went at 70:

• His annual travel policy has stopped. Some annual policies end at 74 or 75, so he needs a single-trip policy quoted for ten weeks, with his blood pressure medicine declared.
• His pension carries on as before. Ten weeks is under 12, so the Pension Supplement keeps paying. After 6 weeks the Energy Supplement stops and his Concession Card is cancelled. He tells Services Australia before he goes.
• Medicines. Nothing can be posted to him, so he takes ten weeks’ supply in the original packs, with a doctor’s letter.
• The unit. He keeps paying rates and strata at home while he’s away, and the Penang figure doesn’t include those.

His daughter keeps a copy of his insurance policy and itinerary.

What to ask a professional

• Insurance broker: “Which insurers will cover a ten-week trip at my age, with my conditions declared?” “What’s the longest trip they’ll cover, and does it include getting me home if I’m ill?”
• Your GP: “Is my health stable enough for this trip, and what should my medicine letter say?”
• Licensed financial adviser: “If I needed care, what would it cost here, and how would my pension and home be treated?”
• The country’s embassy or a licensed visa agent there: “Which visa covers this stay at my age, and can it be extended if I fall ill?”

Book a free planning session on Zoom. Once we know your situation, we can tell you which of these people to start with.