One of our goals as financial planners is to be sure that our clients have the proper types of insurance in place. Including all the normal ones you may think about like health, auto, homeowners/renters, life, disability, & long-term care insurance. However, there are many more obscure policies that insurance companies have created over the years. Let's take a look at some the most interesting:
Celebrity Disfigurement Insurance
Although disfigurement typically would not cause a disability it could make it impossible for an entertainer to land roles. This insurance will trigger if the entertainer is defaced, their beauty is damaged/spoiled, or they become deformed due to an accident or sickness. If it is deemed to be permanent and uncorrectable, the entertainer will be considered totally disabled.
Some celebrities even insure a specific body part. In 2004, Heidi Klum reportedly insured her legs for $2.2 million. Egon Ronay, a distinguished food critic insured the taste buds on his tongue for $400,000, while Head & Shoulders took a $1 million policy to protect Troy Polamalu's hair.
Draft / Contract Protection
Speaking of sports, for serious athletes being drafted into a professional sport is the first main payoff from a lifetime of physical training. Top prospects can land multi-million dollar contracts but if they become sick or hurt, they could lose everything and go undrafted. Draft protection insurance protects the current projected value of the player from the time they purchase the policy to the date of the draft.
Once drafted, professional athletes have various levels of guaranteed contracts depending on the sport they play and how valuable the player is to the team. The MLB has the most protection for players and contracts are typically fully guaranteed as apposed to the NFL which typically has the worst guarantees, allowing the team to waive the contract at the end of any season. Insurance opportunities exist in both situations. Fully guaranteed contracts are normally insured at the team level and contracts without guarantees are insured by the player.
Lottery Insurance
This type of insurance can be bought by business owners who know their staff regularly play the lottery. Imagine if they were to hit the jackpot and immediately the majority of them decide to retire... this insurance would help to cover the loss of productivity and the hiring of temps and new staff.
now probably the weirdest of all...
Alien Abduction Insurance
Yes, you read that right. This is supposed to cover you in the event that you've been abducted by non-human life forms, AKA aliens. If you or a friend is concerned that this could happen then you should purchase Alien Abduction Insurance. This insurance is very cheap and surprisingly some are reportedly paying claims!
The moral of the story is you can buy insurance for almost anything these days! Talk to an experienced financial planner to see which will be appropriate for you.