Helping a parent who wants to retire overseas

The order of decisions for you

When a parent says “we’re thinking of retiring to Thailand”, the worry tends to arrive before the questions do. Calm questions, asked in the right order, will get you further.

1. Listen first. Ask what draws them to it. It might be the warmth, the cost, friends who went, or wanting a fresh start, and their answer tells you what the plan has to do. Our guide to talking to family about retiring overseas has ways to open it up.
2. Ask what kind of time away they mean. Is it a winter away, a long stay, or a move for good? A winter away of under 12 weeks keeps their Age Pension and the Pension Supplement, though after 6 weeks the Energy Supplement stops and the Concession Card is cancelled. A move for good means the base rate from the day they leave.
3. Look at insurance together. Quotes for their age, the length of stay and their declared conditions often decide the plan. If they’re over 75, our page on retiring overseas at 75 and over covers the age limits.
4. Talk about medicines. They need enough for the whole stay, in original packs, with a doctor’s letter, because you can’t post more later. Our guide to taking PBS medicines overseas sets out the rules.
5. Look at the money offers together. Before they pay a deposit for a rental, a visa service or an investment, check who is behind it. Our guide to overseas retirement scams lists the common ones.
6. Set up the safety net. Smartraveller stopped running trip registration in 2019. Now you subscribe to its email and SMS alerts for their destination. Keep copies of their passport, insurance policy, itinerary and doctor’s letter, and save the Smartraveller consular emergency line: 1300 555 135 in Australia, or +61 2 6261 3305 from overseas.
7. Talk about the hard things. What happens if one of them gets sick, or dies, while they’re away? Who has legal authority to act for them here? Our guide to coming home: your pension and Medicare covers the return.
8. Suggest a trial in an easier place. These suit a parent’s first long stay:
   • Penang: 90 days on arrival with no visa application.
   • New Zealand: close to home, and one of 11 reciprocal health care agreement countries for medically necessary public care.

A worked example

An example, not a real person.

Karen’s mother, Jean, is 76 and widowed. She owns her unit in Adelaide and gets the maximum single rate of the Age Pension. A friend from church spends winters in Penang, and Jean wants to join her for ten weeks.

	Per month
Jean’s Age Pension, single maximum (A$1,237.70 a fortnight)	about A$2,680
A month in Penang for one, 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. The figure doesn’t include her costs in Adelaide.

What Karen helped with:

• Insurance: Jean’s annual travel policy had stopped at her age, so they got single-trip quotes for ten weeks with her arthritis and blood pressure declared.
• Medicines: Jean saw her GP eight weeks out, got a letter, and packed ten weeks of medicine in the original packs.
• Pension: Jean told Services Australia because she’d be away more than 6 weeks. Ten weeks keeps her Pension Supplement.
• Paperwork: Karen has copies of everything, plus the friend’s phone number and the apartment address.
• The question they parked: where Jean would want to be if she needed care one day. They agreed to come back to it after the trip.

What to ask a professional

• Insurance broker (with your parent): “Which insurers cover a stay this long at this age, with these conditions declared?” “Does it cover a flight home and a family member flying over?”
• Licensed financial adviser (your parent’s own): “If Mum moved overseas for good, what would happen to her pension and her home?”
• Lawyer: “Does Mum have an enduring power of attorney and an up-to-date will, and do they work if she’s overseas?”
• Your parent’s GP: “Is this trip suitable for Dad’s health, and what should go in his medicine letter?”

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