8 of the Weirdest Insurance Policies

We're all familiar with auto, home, life and health insurance. But how about chest hair insurance? Coffee taster's tongue insurance? Laughing-to-death insurance?

They're all part of Bankrate's roundup of the world's weirdest insurance policies.

Owing to the bizarre nature of their risks, the lion's share of these policies, known as specialty lines insurance, have been underwritten by Lloyd's of London. Ironically, Lloyd's is not an insurance company at all, but instead a society of syndicates that insure many of the world's riskiest ventures.

Ted Tafaro, CEO of Exceptional Risk Advisors, a Lloyd's underwriter in Mahwah, N.J., says the small universe of stars combined with the fleeting nature of fame puts these risks beyond the means of mainstream insurance companies.

"If you think of what insurance really is, it's a pooling to get the law of large numbers to work for you," he says. "The reality is, there's just not a great population of these celebrities out there that would enable an insurance underwriter to get that law of large numbers working for them."

The result is some of the weirdest insurance you've ever seen.

Who would insure "Ugly Betty" star America Ferrera's smile for $10 million? NFL star Troy Polamalu's locks for $1 million? Supermodel Heidi Klum's legs for $2.2 million?

In order: Aquafresh, Head & Shoulders and Braun.

Big insurance makes big headlines for the manufacturers that pay celebrities big bucks to promote their products. Despite their eye-catching face value, such promotional policies are quite reasonably priced for one simple reason: They're unlikely to ever pay out.

"Lotion companies were famous for insuring their leg models' legs for a million dollars," says Tafaro. "We would write a policy for them, charge them $1,000, and if her legs got disfigured in an accident in Central Park on a Thursday, we would pay."

In 2004, Lloyd's even developed a policy to cover the loss of chest hair that could impact the insured's image or career.

"But if people are sincere about the insurance, they insure the whole body," Tafaro says.

If you think your insurance premiums are out of this world, consider SpaceShipOne, which, as the first non-government-backed space plane to leave the earth's atmosphere, carried a $100 million Lloyd's liability policy to a record-breaking altitude of 62 miles (328,461 feet) in 2004.

New space tourism ventures such as Richard Branson's Virgin Galactic will doubtless have similar policies in place before liftoff.

But space risk isn't limited to suborbital aircraft. Lloyd's underwriters also have insured earthlings against being maimed or killed by falling space debris from a disintegrating satellite.

Soon, Lloyd's may even offer "space weather" insurance to businesses exposed to potential disruptions in power supplies, transportation and communications systems caused by magnetic storms expected to accompany the new 11-year solar cycle that begins in 2012.

Hmmm, 2012? Perhaps there's a Mayan end-of-the-world policy in the works!

It's no secret that fine art requires care and specialized insurance, as London gallery owner Charles Saatchi found out the hard way during his own private art meltdown.

In 1991, Saatchi bought a frozen sculpture titled "Self" from artist Marc Quinn that was indeed a life-size cast of the artist's head made entirely out of nine pints of Mr. Quinn's blood. Talk about your frozen assets!

Nine years later, during a kitchen renovation to the London home Saatchi shared with TV chef Nigella Lawson, builders unplugged the freezer containing the artwork.

The ensuing trail of red liquid across the floor led all the way to Lloyd's claims desk.

Not so long ago, wedding insurance might have qualified as weird coverage. Not anymore. Today, wedding coverage has become commonplace as the average cost of a wedding in the United States has grown to $29,000.

Fireman's Fund has been insuring weddings since the early '90s. "It protects the nonrefundable expenses, including cancellation due to serious illness, injury, extreme weather, a missing caterer or officiate -- even a bankrupt event facility," says Janet Ruiz, Fireman's media relations manager.

Two years ago, Fireman's added "change of heart" coverage for the bride or groom left stranded at the altar. There's even a rider to cover the cost of professional counseling to help mend their broken heart.

But don't let those Julia Roberts "Runaway Bride" images run wild. The coverage only applies if the wedding is called off 180 days in advance, and only covers money spent by "innocent party financiers," i.e., the parents. Self-funding spouses-to-be won't recover a dime.

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