Insurance that pays out for hotels that get haunted
A MAJOR insurance company is now offering to pay out life cover should the policyholder be exterminated by a Dalek or struck down by Lord Voldemort.
The policy from Virgin Money will also pay if you fall foul of the Loch ness Monster.
These wacky ways to meet your maker listed in the firm’s small print are a way of getting customers to read the technical details — and make them realise that the chances of accidental death are really rather slim.
But Lloyd’s of London is routinely drawing up unusual policies that promise to pay out for unlikely events — such as insurance for firms that worry about suffering a loss of profit if their star employee leaves.
Sports fans have insured themselves for emotional trauma if their team lost a major tournament.
And until recently you could insure yourself for the financial burden of giving birth to the next Son of Christ, if you thought it was a possibility.
WHY BEING A CLOWN IS NO LAUGHING MATTER
SOME jobs are more dangerous than others, so spare a thought for the poor circus employee.
Those in the profession of clowning can get self-employment liability cover of up to the value of £5 million.
Available from Blackfriars Insurance, it protects clowns for ‘personal injury or property damage that occurs in the course of their business’.
Among other professions, Blackfriars also covers pottery makers (in case they can no longer make their pots) and yoga teachers (should they no longer be able to stretch).
CLAIM IF SOMEONE SEES A GHOST
IF YOU’RE worried about ghouls and goblins, Lloyd’s of London has a solution for you — it offers ghost insurance policies, particularly aimed at businesses who lose income because of a haunting.
One hotelier reputedly took out a policy that would pay out £1 million if any of his customers or employees were killed or permanently disabled by a ghost or poltergeist while on the premises.
Lloyd’s is also rumoured to have sold werewolf, vampire and zombie attack insurance.
STRANGE PARTS OF YOUR ANATOMY
IT IS not at all uncommon for celebrities to insure strange parts of their anatomy.
Black-and-white silent movie star Ben Turpin insured his eyes for £15,000. They were his trademark feature, being permanently crossed, and he wanted to cover himself for loss of earnings in case they ever uncrossed themselves.
Meanwhile, the rocker Bruce Springsteen once insured his voice for £3.5 million, actress Bette Davis insured her waist against weight gain and David Beckham insured his legs for £100 million.
But you don’t have to be a millionaire superstar to grab such a policy. Forty members of the Derbyshire Whiskers Club insured their beards against fire and theft.
ASTEROID AND METEOR DAMAGE
NO HUMAN is ever known to have been killed by an asteroid (plenty of dinosaurs probably were), but they do penetrate the atmosphere and land on Earth occasionally.
In which case, the cautious homeowner might do well to consider meteor insurance to cover their home should the worst happen.
It’s difficult to get dedicated meteor insurance, but most home insurance policies will protect you against it.
Asteroids are classified as ‘falling objects’, which are covered in most policies. This clause should also cover an aeroplane falling on your house. The same goes for your car insurance. In 1914, home insurance policies also covered any damage caused by suffragettes.
JACKPOT WIN COVER
FOR business owners, offering a lucrative prize to draw in punters can be a great idea — as long as no one actually wins. Luckily, insurance firm World Wide Special risks (WSR) offers cover for just such an occasion.
Its prize insurance covers high-value jackpots that are won through skill or chance, such as a tricky hole-in-one on a golf course.
Jon Wilkinson, chief operating officer of WSR, recalls one business that took out cover when it was raising funds at a charity dinner by offering guests the chance to win a Virgin galactic Flight worth £200,000 with a roll of the dice.
KIDNAPPED BY PIRATES
THIS is more of a serious issue, particularly for multinational companies that send employees to trouble spots. It’s offered by AIG and typically taken out by high net worth individuals or high-profile employees.
AIG says there 40,000 kidnappings every year globally.
you can also get specific cover for kidnap by pirates, which is particularly useful should you be captaining a boat off the east coast of Africa.
$10 MILLION FOR ALIEN ABDUCTION
FOR those fearful of close encounters with ET, it is possible to insure yourself against alien abduction.
The first broker to offer this type of cover was, unsurprisingly, in the u.S. While you could get covered up to $10 million, the policy would only pay out $1 a week if your claim was successful.
A London broker was reported to have sold several thousand of these policies but stopped after the mass suicide of a religious group who had taken them out.