As every insurance carrier and broker knows, risk is unpredictable. That’s why insurance exists in the first place.
Most of the time, the risks we insure are fairly easy to understand. Homes can burn down. Cars get into accidents. Businesses face lawsuits, property damage, and workplace injuries. These are the kinds of losses people encounter every day, so it makes sense that insurance products have evolved to address them.
But not every risk is so obvious.
Over the years, insurers have written policies for everything from celebrity body parts and wedding cancellations to ghost sightings and alien abductions. Some of these coverages were created to solve legitimate financial problems. Others seem to have started because someone had a very specific fear and was willing to pay for peace of mind.
As strange as they may sound, every policy on this list exists for the same reason any other insurance policy exists: someone saw a potential loss and wanted protection against it.
Here are 10 crazy insurance policies that actually exist and the stories behind them.
1. Body Part Insurance
You would expect a NASCAR driver to have life insurance, but did you know that certain celebrities have specific body parts insured for millions of dollars?
Some famous examples include:
- $2.2 million for Heidi Klum’s legs
- $27 million for J. Lo’s butt
- $10 million for America Ferrera’s teeth
- $6 million for Rod Stewart’s voice
- $1.6 million for Keith Richards’ middle finger
- $600,000 for Dolly Parton’s chest
- $7 million for Tom Jones’ chest hair
- $1 million for Gene Simmons’ tongue
- $393,000 for food critic Egon Ronay’s taste buds
It’s easy to laugh at some of those numbers, but body part insurance actually makes a lot of sense when you think about it. If Keith Richards loses the finger he relies on to play guitar, his career changes overnight. If a food critic loses their sense of taste, they lose the very thing that makes their profession possible.
The concept isn’t limited to celebrities, either. Models, musicians, athletes, and other professionals have purchased similar coverage over the years. In fact, anybody can potentially insure a body part if they can demonstrate its financial value.
2. Career Insurance
If body part insurance protects a specific asset, career insurance takes the idea one step further.
Not every profession depends on a single body part. Some people make a living from a unique combination of skills, reputation, talent, and public recognition. For them, losing the ability to work can be financially devastating even if no single injury is to blame.
That’s why some celebrities and professional athletes have purchased policies designed to protect their careers as a whole. Abbott and Costello famously insured themselves against partnership-ending disputes, while athletes have long sought protection against injuries that could abruptly end their earning years.
At its core, career insurance is really income protection on a much larger scale. It just happens to involve some very famous policyholders.
3. Ghost Insurance
This may be the strangest policy on the list.
The term “ghost policy” already has a meaning in the insurance world. It often refers to a situation where a business tries to avoid carrying proper workers’ comp coverage. But in this case, we’re talking about something much more literal.
After reports of paranormal activity at a British hotel, the owner reportedly purchased a £1 million insurance policy covering death or disability caused by a ghost.
Whether you believe in ghosts is beside the point. What’s fascinating is that someone was concerned enough about the possibility to seek insurance coverage in the first place.
That’s often how niche insurance products come into existence. A unique concern becomes a financial concern, and eventually someone finds a way to insure it.
4. Alien Abduction Insurance
If ghost insurance sounds unusual, alien abduction insurance somehow manages to be even stranger.
Over the years, several companies have offered policies covering alleged extraterrestrial encounters. Some are sold primarily as novelty gifts, while others have been marketed more seriously to UFO enthusiasts.
The interesting part isn’t whether aliens are visiting Earth. It’s that insurers recognized there was demand for this kind of coverage.
Insurance isn’t always about probability. Sometimes it’s about peace of mind. If someone is willing to pay for protection against a highly unlikely event, there will often be a company willing to write the policy.
5. Falling Sputnik Insurance
When the Soviet Union launched Sputnik in 1957, it sparked more than just excitement about the space race. It also created a surprising amount of public anxiety.
Many people worried that satellites or debris could eventually fall back to Earth and cause injury or death. The concern became widespread enough that Lloyd’s of London reportedly wrote policies covering accidental death caused by falling satellite debris.
As far as anyone knows, nobody was ever injured by Sputnik itself.
Still, the policy serves as a reminder that insurance often follows public fears as much as it follows actual risk. When enough people become concerned about a potential loss, insurance markets have a way of responding.
6. Thailand Riot Insurance
Most insurance policies are created to protect an individual person, family, or business. Thailand riot insurance was a little different because it was also meant to protect an entire industry.
When political unrest began affecting Thailand’s tourism industry in 2010, travelers became understandably hesitant. In response, the Thai government offered coverage for tourists who were injured as a result of a riot during their visit. Certain travel delays caused by riots and political demonstrations were reimbursable as well.
The policy wasn’t just about paying claims. It was about helping visitors feel comfortable enough to travel again.
That makes this one of the more practical examples on the list. Insurance can protect people from financial loss, but it can also help restore confidence when uncertainty starts affecting real-world decisions.
7. Cold Feet Insurance
We’ve written about wedding insurance before and believe it can be well worth the cost, especially if you’re getting married during hurricane season.
But what if the thing that cancels your wedding isn’t a storm?
Some companies offer “Change of Heart” or cold feet coverage if a bride or groom calls off the wedding before the ceremony.
There is an important catch. The person who backs out doesn’t collect the money. Instead, this type of coverage is generally designed to reimburse an innocent party who paid for the wedding, such as a parent or family member.
It may sound dramatic, but weddings are expensive. When deposits, venues, catering, flowers, and formalwear are involved, a last-minute cancellation can create a very real financial loss.
8. Multiple Birth Insurance
“Buy One Get One Free” sounds great at the grocery store. It sounds a little more intimidating when you’re talking about babies.
Multiple birth insurance was created to help offset the additional costs of an unexpected multiple birth. While one baby already comes with plenty of expenses, twins or triplets can change a family’s financial plans overnight. This type of coverage is not commonly available in the United States, but similar products have been popular in the U.K. And honestly, this one may be less strange than it sounds. Not every surprise is bad news, but even happy surprises can come with a price tag.
9. Lottery Insurance
Lottery pools are popular in the office, especially when the jackpot reaches the multimillions.
But have you ever thought about what would happen if your employees actually won?
This exact scenario happened in the U.K., where seven office workers became lottery winners and reportedly handed in their notices the following day. Great news for them, of course. Not so great for the employer who suddenly had to replace a large portion of the team.
That’s where lottery insurance comes in.
Unlike traditional business insurance, which often protects buildings, inventory, vehicles, or liability exposures, lottery insurance is designed to help with the disruption caused by losing multiple employees at once after a jackpot win.
It sounds like a punchline until you remember how much some businesses depend on a small group of key people. From that perspective, lottery insurance is really a business continuity tool. Just a very unusual one.
10. Bed Bug Insurance
Compared to ghosts, aliens, and falling satellites, bed bug insurance may sound almost ordinary. Unfortunately, it may also be one of the most practical policies on this list.
Many people assume their homeowner’s or renter’s insurance is comprehensive, only to find out later that certain problems aren’t covered. In Florida, you may already know that flood damage usually requires separate coverage, but you might not realize that bed bug remediation is often excluded as well.
For a homeowner, treating bed bugs can be frustrating and expensive. For a landlord, apartment owner, hotel, or property manager, the cost can climb much higher.
That’s why bed bug coverage exists. It addresses a real-world problem that many property owners don’t think about until they’re already dealing with it.
What These Policies Teach Us About Risk
At first glance, celebrity leg insurance and bed bug coverage don’t seem to have much in common. One sounds like a Hollywood headline, while the other sounds like a very unpleasant property problem.
But they’re built on the same basic idea.
Insurance exists when a financial risk becomes large enough that someone wants help managing it. Sometimes that risk involves a house, a car, or a business. Sometimes it involves a singer’s voice, a tourism industry’s reputation, or a group of employees who might all quit after winning the lottery.
The details may be unusual, but the purpose is the same: protect something valuable from an unexpected loss.
Protecting What Matters Most
Most people don’t need insurance for ghosts, aliens, or falling satellites. But these unusual policies highlight an important lesson: coverage gaps aren’t always obvious until something goes wrong.
You may not rely on your sense of smell to make a living, and you may not be worried about your employees winning the lottery. But you could still have risks in your personal life or business that aren’t fully covered by your current policies.
At Harry Levine Insurance, our goal is to help you understand your coverage before you need it. Whether you’re protecting your family, your property, or your business, we’re here to help you build a network of protection around what matters most. Call us today to see how we can help.
