7 Weird and Wonderful Things You Can Insure

Most of us will take out a travel insurance policy when we go on holiday, and mobile phone insurance is now a necessity. But have you ever stopped to think about insuring your taste buds, chest hair or even against alien encounters?

It wouldn’t be the most bizarre thing you could insure, as we discovered while doing a little bit of digging around the weird and wonderful insurance policies that have been taken out over the years.

Refined Taste Buds

In 1993, the Hungarian-born food critic Egon Ronay insured his taste buds for £250,000. The pioneering foodie was responsible for bringing foreign cuisine to the UK and used his refined palate to inspire a generation of Londoners after opening one of the capitals first restaurants offering French cuisine.

An Iconic Tail

In 2003, Entertainment Rights were revealed to be paying £1,000 in annual premiums to insure their star, Basil Brush and his bushy tail. The policy was to ensure the puppet’s tail didn’t get damaged while on a promotional roadshow. When asked, a spokesperson said, “It’s just to make sure he’s protected – no price is too high for our Basil.”

Things that go Bump in the night

The pub landlord of the Royal Falcon Hotel in Lowestoft took out an insurance policy against things that go bump in the night. The landlord was concerned that the resident poltergeist might hurt customers and staff. For a £500 premium, the policy would pay out £1 million in the event a member of staff or a customer was killed or injured by a ghost. Spooky!

Jackpot Insurance

In the UK, lottery syndicate insurance provides protection for employers in the event that more than one employee wins the lottery and decides to quit. This is particularly important for companies with an employee lottery syndicate, as this could mean losing a large chunk of your workforce at short notice.

Hirsute Pursuit

It’s not unusual for celebrities to insure parts of their bodies for large sums of money, which is why we aren’t surprised at all to learn that Tom Jones insured his chest hair for the tidy sum of $7 million.

Winner Winner

You might want to phone a friend to find out which game show pays its winners through an insurance policy. That’s right, Who Wants to Be a Millionaire is insured against anyone actually winning the show, which means the prize pot is paid out by the insurer. This led to a lawsuit being filed against the American version of the show after the insurer argued that they had made it too easy to win.

Last But Not Least…

In 2001, the National Sea Life Centre in Birmingham put a Japanese Giant Crab on display. To protect the Sea Life centre against any liability, a policy was taken out to insure visitors against death and permanent disability in the unlikely event that a visitor ended up face to face with the giant sea monster.

Once you hear about all of these crazy insurance policies, insuring your business doesn’t sound too out there. If you’d like to find out more about how we can help protect your business against common threats, click the link below to start building your quote.

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Six strange things you can insure