The world of insurance perhaps isn’t as dull as most of us have been led to believe. It’s something we all deal with: insuring a car, insuring our home, taking out life insurance, or buying health insurance. But there are other types of insurance you may not know about. Some of them are quite interesting.
Have you ever watched an American basketball game where the halftime entertainment included someone whose name was drawn attempting to make a 3-point shot or a half-court shot? The odds are very much stacked against the average person making one of these shots, particularly in front of millions of viewers. But sometimes it does happen. The company sponsoring the contest doesn’t just keep a big pile of money around in case someone makes that basket. They buy an insurance policy to pay out in the event of a successful shot.
In today’s world of expensive "dream" weddings, couples are increasingly taking out wedding insurance policies. These cover unforseen problems like serious illness or injury in the family, bad weather, vendors who don’t show, or even military deployment. If one of these problems derails a wedding altogether or causes a postponement, the policy will cover costs up to the amount of the policy. One thing these policies do not do, however, is insure against a bride or groom getting cold feet and ditching his or her own wedding. That’s considered a controllable circumstance.
Probably the most famous "insurer" of odd things is Lloyd’s of London. Lloyd’s isn’t so much an insurance company as it is a large pool of underwriters who all chip in fairly large sums of money on the bet that a client will not need to cash in their policy. Lloyd’s is also primarily known as a shipping insurer. They do not issue long term life insurance. But they’ll underwrite just about anything else.
Most of us have heard about film legend Betty Grable’s legs being insured for $250,000, but did you know that someone took out $22,400 worth of protection against being killed by Sputnik falling out of the sky?
When it comes to celebrities insuring body parts, most experts agree that it is actually much more of a publicity stunt than an wise insurance decision. For the most part, those insuring their legs, or fingers or whatever would be as well or better off with a general disability insurance policy which is probably extremely affordable for the average celebrity. But taking out insurance on a famed body part or parts is a sure way to generate buzz and get a celebrity’s name into the headlines. And that might be a good investment after all.
