Most of the businesses an insurance underwriter will work with have unique needs, and whilst a lot of standard policies will apply for the vast majority of businesses such as employer’s liability insurance, others will need to be more tailored to a particular industry.

For example, security insurance can take a variety of forms, from injury and building insurance to professional liability insurance that helps cover consultants in case they make a costly mistake.

However, for unusual personalities and unusual professions, even more unorthodox policies need to be devised by organisations such as Lloyd’s of London, which cover very specific features or cover an exceptionally unlikely occurrence.

Here are just a few examples.

The Killing Joke

An old saying claims that laughter is the best medicine, but one comedy theatre troupe was either particularly confident or wanted to protect themselves as much as possible, so they took out a 

Lloyd’s policy protecting them from liability in case a member of their audience died of laughter.

Whilst there have been cases of people literally dying of laughter, most famously a man by the name of Alex Mitchell from King Lynn who died during an episode of the Goonies, it is exceptionally unlikely and typically factors are involved.

A Demon’s Tongue

In the 1970s, one of the biggest bands in the world was the outlandish face-painted rock group KISS, who thrived on showmanship and portraying very larger-than-life characters.

However, whilst Peter “The Catman” Criss, Ace “The Spaceman” Frehley and Paul “The Starchild” Stanley” had more down-to-earth insurance policies, Gene Simmons believed that his long tongue was so important to The Demon character he portrayed that he needed to cover it to the value of over £1m.

Sadly this policy did not cover the career damage caused by the tongue-in-cheek film KISS Meets The Phantom Of The Park.

The Colossal Tussle

One of the few policies Lloyd’s of London refuses to give out anymore is to protect the bodies of professional wrestlers in case of serious injury.

The reason for this was due to so many wrestlers retiring as the result of a career-ending injury, cashing in on the policy before returning to wrestling, with Ric Flair perhaps being the worst offender for retiring and returning before his final match in 2022.