Weirdest Insurance Policies around the World
by: Caitlyn Ng
It is apparent to most that insurance is big business – but just how much? Check out some of these far-out things insured by some rich and eccentric people the world over. You’ll soon notice that possibility and probability have very little to do with many of these in policies!
Awesome Anatomies
What does Mariah Carey the singer, Angela Mount the wine expert, Ken Dodd the comedian and Jeff Beck the guitarist all have in common? They all insured parts of their awesome anatomy (legs, taste buds, teeth and fingers respectively)! If you think that's ridiculous, try considering the fact that the body parts these famous people have insured are also part of how they became famous. For example, Jeff Beck (who was ranked fifth in the Rolling Stone's list of the "100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time") once sliced his finger when he was cutting carrots.
After that, he decided that it would be safer to insure all ten of those precious digits for a cool $11.8 million (RM38.2 million) just in case anything else more serious were to happen to them!
Fabulous Follicles
You would have thought that people would love to do anything they can to get rid of body hair, which can be deemed as unsightly. That is apparently not the case for these people who found a need to insure their body hair! Merv Hughes is one of those people who feels that his gloriously impressive moustache helped to make him one of the most prominent cricketers in the field.
Of course, his skill as a right arm fast bowler should be the main reason how he has an outstanding presence in the first place, but he decided to take out an insurance worth approximately $400,000 (RM1.3 million) on his handlebar moustache anyway while playing for Australia’s national team.
Lucky Lottos
If ever you feel the insecurity of your current batch of employees having a high chance of winning the lottery and suddenly resigning, therefore leaving you high and dry, you needn't have to worry anymore if you're in the United Kingdom! There is a special kind of insurance that employers can purchase if they fear two or more of their employees will walk out on them by winning the National Lottery.
However, there is a major clause to fulfil before one can claim on this insurance: that the two employees who are about to resign must win during the same drawing, which actually sets the odds of anyone collecting on this policy absurdly high but leaves the insurance company laughing all the way to the bank. That is of course, they managed to find enough gullible companies to sign up.
Game Show Gamble
By now, many people would have already heard of the game show "Who Wants To Be A Millionaire?", thanks in part to the movie that made it popular: Slumdog Millionaire. This is an international television game show franchise that has its presence in more than 100 countries worldwide. Believe it or not, the American version of the show actually bought insurance in the rare event that a brilliant genius were to win the coveted ultimate prize money. When one were to look at it from that perspective, it became a question of "who wants to be the one to pay out that much money?" as opposed to the question of "who wants to be a millionaire?"!
Alien Abduction
"Look, what's that in the sky? Is it a bird? A plane? It's a UFO!" How many times have we seen movies and tv series that involve an extraterrestrial being? Countless times. And most of them decide to make landfall in America, the land of the free, so it seems. It should thus come as no surprise that these insurance policies are sold in the USA where many people have a strong fear of being abducted by aliens. There have been sales in the thousands already, therefore proving just how many people have this concern.
You can get an insurance policy for as low as $25 to $50 (about RM81 to RM162) for a lifetime policy, fantastic protection against the psychological and physical trauma you may experience. However, proving that you were abducted by an alien will be necessary before you can claim.
Meeting Monsters
If aliens and UFOs weren't enough of a problem already in our society, we now have to contend with stories of monster sightings. One such monster that has survived the test of time is the Loch Ness monster that resides in the lake of the same name up in the Scottish Highlands. Also referred fondly as "Nessie" by the locals, the sightings of this creature is not backed by the scientific community. That didn't seem to stop whiskey company, Cutty Sark, who once offered a $1.5 million prize to anyone who is able to catch that mythical Scottish lake inhabitant alive.
Fearing that someone would indeed be able to turn up at their doorstep with Nessie on a leash, the company then took an insurance policy to safeguard themselves against that ever happening!
* Caitlyn Ng is an Investigative Journalist of SaveMoney.my, an online consumer advice portal which aims to help Malaysians save money through smart (and most of the time painless) savings in their daily banking, technology, and lifestyle spending habits.
