The Most Bizarre Items Insured Throughout History

The Most Bizarre Items Insured Throughout History


When we think of insurance, car, life and home insurance immediately come to mind, but "Death by crab" insurance? Or how about insurance against alien abductions? Strange but true, these are the accounts of the most unbelievable items and instances that have ever been insured.

The 12 Foot Long Cigar

 Besides holding a world record for the longest cigar, this 12 foot long gem also holds the most expensive insurance policy for a cigar. 15,000 tobacco leaves were used in the making of this record setter. Apparently, it would take a full 339 days to smoke the entire cigar, and hopefully not by just one person. Just in case something would ever happen to it, the owner can rest in peace knowing it is fully protected.

A Comedian's Fear

 Just in case comedian Rich Hall would ever lose his humor, he is insured for one million dollars. This is no joke, nor laughing matter. In 2001 this comedian purchased insurance for permanent rather than temporary loss of humor.

Ten Digits

 It seems that if you become a professional Yo-Yo champion, you can get your hands insured...or at least this is the case of 13-year-old Harvey Lowe who won the 1932 World Yo-Yo Championships. At the time he was competing for Cheerio, a company out of Canada who decided that his hands were extremely valuable, so valuable that they insured them for 150,000!

Walrus Mustache



 Merv Hughes is seen in most Australian's eyes as a national Cricket player. He stayed on the national team from 1985-1994, and in this time took out a $370,000 insurance policy for his mustache! Being 6'4" and having extraordinary facial hair made Merv one of the most handsome and recognizable Cricket players in Australian history.

Flash the Middle Finger

 Only Keith Richards of the Rolling Stones would ever have his middle finger insured, and for $1.6 million dollars! This could possibly be due to the fact that he is known as one of the greatest guitar players of all time, however if this was the case one would assume that he would have both of his hands insured just like Harvey Lowe!

Alien Abduction

Depending on how you are abducted, several insurance companies are willing to pay somewhere between $10 and $20 million dollars if you have insurance. Hopefully this would never happen to you, but just in case you think it will, it may be a smart idea to invest.

Valuable Chest Hair

 What is worth more: Merv Hughes' mustache or Tom Jones' chest hair? We will let you decide. The 67 year old singer apparently insured his chest hair for a whopping $7 million dollars. Lloyd's of London is known for insuring the weird request of several celebrities.

Beaver Teeth



 Not the actual teeth of a beaver, were talking about Ken Dodd's buck teeth. This comedian insured his teeth for $6.2 million dollars in 1989. It seems as celebrities are the trend here!

 Thinking of getting something that the general public would see as bizarre insured? This list clearly shows that no matter what you are looking to have security for, no request is truly bizarre.

Raymond Gregory is a freelance writer who focuses on finance, taxation, the economy, business, commerce and insurance. To learn more visit Cure Insurance.

 



Insurance: A Guide

"Remember kids, I have life insurance" - Adam Savage

This is a guest article from Tatyana Levin

These days one must be financially savvy. Money is not easy to come by and should be managed carefully. With the availability of tools that make it easy to keep track of current events, the stock market, and even your own money, it would be almost a crime to not utilize these tools to make the best and most informed financial decisions. Unfortunately, the more there is, the more there is to keep track of. This applies both to tracking tools and money (the small curse within the comfort of having money to keep track of).

 The savvier ones of us dabble in investments, and the savviest make their living that way. The key is that they know what to invest in. Not magically, of course; investors do a significant amount of research to learn how to optimize their portfolios, but they have the understanding.

A grossly overlooked investment is insurance. This may be because is not typically referred to as an investment with the exception of whole life insurance that has a specific investment component within it. Webster’s defines the word “invest” as a commitment of money for a return and “insurance” as a guarantee. This makes insurance the safest type of investment, because your returns are guaranteed.  But returns are not always financial in the case of insurance. They can be, if there is an unforeseen accident, but the most certain return is the feeling of security.

Now there are many different types of insurance, and what you need depends on your current situation. Obviously you only need auto insurance, found using auto insurance leads if you have a car, and you only need renter’s insurance if you rent and have possessions that you would need insured. Insurance is for those who have something to lose. With an attachment to something, either emotional of physical (or dependence, not like physically being glued to your car), comes the fear that it will be damaged or ruined in some way. For example, if your house caught on fire, you would be devastated. What would add insult to injury is not having a way to recover from this horrible disaster.

 These types of examples are not unique to this article. That is the way that insurance is sold. As they say that clichés are clichés for a reason, insurance is promoted this way for a reason.  The foundation of the concept of insurance is uncertainty, and it is the same uncertainty that is conjured up when investing.

The main difference between insurance and investment is that not having insurance creates a feeling of uncertainty while investments by nature are uncertain. Therefore, investing in insurance creates security and is the only secure investment that exists (and is legal). Getting insurance should be one of the easier financial tasks if you apply all the resources available with technological advances like smart phones.

About the Author: This article was written by Tatyana Levin, a copywriter for InsuranceFiles.com