Weirdest Things You Never Knew You Could Insure
Most of us don’t think too much about insurance, but we deal with it in almost every aspect of our lives, from health insurance to unemployment insurance, from homeowner’s insurance to auto insurance. But insurance can cover a lot more—in fact, most common homeowner insurances cover things you might not be aware of, like liability if your dog bites someone, riot damage(!), and even your tombstones that are considered personal property. . In theory, you can take out an individual insurance policy for anything that has a provable ” insurable interest ” – that is, a provable financial loss associated with the event.
Insurers may be reluctant to issue a policy if there is significant moral hazard or if they believe the policy does not make financial sense for their business, but you may be surprised to learn that some things you can insure with a fairly low degree of complexity.
Body parts
You must have heard of some celebrity who insured certain body parts. If you thought it was just an advertisement, you are wrong – in fact, you can insure a body part or even a function of a body part if you can demonstrate insurable interest. For example, model and TV presenter Heidi Klum’s legs were actually insured for over $2 million , although it should be noted that the client took out the insurance, presumably because losing Klum’s legs would have ruined their investment in her as a model or spokesperson.
You don’t need to be particularly famous to insure a body part or feature. For example , a Dutch winemaker insured his sense of smell , and a professional coffee taster insured his taste buds against his employer. The key point here is the insurable interest. You can’t just claim your ears are adorable and insure them for millions; you will have to demonstrate that the loss or damage to your ears will result in significant financial loss.
Your fantasy sports team
If you’ve ever been in a serious fantasy sports league, you know that this is often a long and complicated sports bet involving many moving parts and often significant sums of money. And you can’t control or predict injuries or sudden layoffs (or arrests and suspensions) that could affect your team’s performance. However, you can insure against these risks. If your insurance company is not interested, you can find a specialized insurance company such as Rotosurance that specializes in this type of insurance.
Weddings & Special Events
Weddings are expensive. In fact, a growing list of special events are worth a lot of money these days – in addition to weddings, you have bar mitzvahs and bat mitzvahs, quinceañeras, and even lavish birthday parties. If you’re planning on investing a significant amount of money on something like a wedding or an extravagant party, you should consider buying insurance just in case something goes wrong – damage to the venue, injury to guests, or cancellation in case someone really severe case of cold feet.
Kidnapping and ransom
The world can be a scary place, and there’s a non-zero chance you could be kidnapped and held for ransom, even if you’re not particularly wealthy. And on the list of the most likely places to get kidnapped , there are some amazing countries like Turkey or the Philippines. So if you are traveling somewhere that increases the risk of kidnapping, you might want to consider buying kidnap and ransom insurance , which is usually not part of your standard vacation insurance (and if it is, it usually isn’t). has a lot of coverage). . This way you can get a ransom without selling your house.
landscape design
Your home’s landscaping is usually covered by your homeowner’s insurance (although not always – check before you make assumptions) – but standard policies are pretty simple and don’t cover much. If you have exotic plants or materials as part of your landscaping, or if you have invested a significant amount in custom plantings, you can and should consider purchasing a separate policy for them, including hail and snow damage if there is a chance of anything a rogue storm could destroy your backyard.
Important employees
If you own a business that depends on a small number of important employees—a fairly typical small business scenario—you can hedge your profits against the loss of that person or people. Key person insurance is actually quite common, but it requires you to be able to demonstrate a quantifiable loss related to the death, unexpected retirement, or other loss of that employee or partner. If you’ve ever woken up in a sweat because you had a nightmare in which Kelly, who works in your sales department, suddenly decides to fulfill her dream of becoming a hand model, this insurance is for you.
Protection against food poisoning
If you’re planning to invite your neighbors over for a picnic, or if you’re inviting your entire management team to a dinner party, you’re putting yourself at risk. If you buy the wrong fish or undercook a pork tenderloin and everyone gets food poisoning, you could be held liable for their medical bills and other expenses. Many homeowner policies actually cover these things (typically up to $1,000 per guest), but not all of them, so it’s worth checking and buying a separate policy if necessary.
War and terrorism
If you do business worldwide or own significant assets in other countries, you know this can be quite an intimidating place. Some otherwise stable and friendly countries have been attacked by terrorists or gone to war with other countries, which is usually not good for both day-to-day business and real estate values. You can protect yourself from the effects of this kind of riot and violence by purchasing war and terrorism insurance , which absolutely exists, though we might ardently wish it wasn’t mandatory.
alien abduction
Yes, you can indeed buy an insurance policy that will reimburse you for losses incurred as a result of alien abduction . While this is a real policy, it is meant to be a joke, which should be obvious from its terms, some of which state that it will pay you $10,000,000 at $1 a year for ten million years. Believe it or not, two people have successfully claimed their insurance policies, earning them that hefty sum of money every twelve months, but you can imagine that the company thinks it’s a small price to pay to avoid a ridiculous lawsuit.
Insurance is always a good idea, and if a property or situation is valuable to you, it’s worth considering whether you can insure it. Because you probably can.