The weird world of insurance doesn’t stop at your bog standard health, life and car policies. No, in fact if you can think about insuring something the chances you probably can and someone’s done it already. Sit tight as we take you on a whirl round the weird world of strange insurance policies.
The first weird insurance policy is the most out of this world of the entire bunch. Alien abduction policies are proving more and more popular with London-based insurance company Goodfellow Rebecca Ingram Pearson having sold a total of 30,000 insurance packages to date. Alien abduction isn’t the only supernatural insurance policy on the market however with ghost, werewolf, vampire and even asteroid insurance all available to purchase.
Weather insurance might sound odd on paper but in fact weather insurance is the oldest kind of insurance around. Farmers’ earnings have long been tied to rain and shine but weather insurance now covers more than just farmers. Golf tournaments can insure against rain, hot air balloon companies can insure against lack of wind while film companies are big fans of weather insurance when it comes to shooting on location.
With film makers insuring against the weather, it wouldn’t be Hollywood without the A-listers getting in on the action as well. Mariah Carey is thought to have insured her legs for a gargantuan $1 billion dollars while supermodel Heidi Klum allegedly insured her catwalk perfect legs for an astonishing $2.2 million. Some quirky body part insurers include Merv Hughes – an Australian cricket player – who insured his iconic moustache for almost $400,000. The food critic Egon Ronay is also thought to have insured his taste buds for the same amount.
Planning a relaxing holiday to some of the world’s kidnap hotspots of Russia, Mexico, Columbia or Eastern Europe? You might want to take kidnap insurance with you! Kidnap and Ransom insurance is popular with wealthy people and their families should they be held hostage and a price demanded for their release. The only catch here is that the insurance company doesn’t pay for the person’s release first hand, instead they reimburse families after they have paid the kidnappers.
Finally, for anyone planning that ‘big day’, taking out wedding insurance might be a worthwhile option. With the average UK wedding costing upwards of £10,000 – excluding the honeymoon – you can protect your wedding against last minute cancellation. Couples can go further to cover individual elements of their big day such as the bride’s dress, drunken damage to the wedding reception or even poor wedding photography.
Protection against alien abduction, kidnap and drunken revellers; who would have thought that pet, travel and life insurance weren’t the only things you could insure.
