#7. Lucky Bean
Rowan Atkinson is an English actor best known for his comical role as Mr. Bean. In the U.K., Atkinson set a record for the largest insurance claim ever recorded after crashing his McLaren F1 automobile . In August 2011, the actor lost control while driving on an icy English road near Peterborough. Luckily, Atkinson walked away with only minor injuries but his 240 mph supercar spent more than a year under repair. The accident cost his auto insurance for a hefty £900,000 which equates to roughly $957,780 USD. The amount exceeded the previous U.K. insurance claim record by nearly 3 times. Since then, Atkinson’s auto insurances quotes will likely be sky high.
#6. He Broke A Leg, now He’s Set For Life
In Virginia, a claimant slipped on ice and skated away with millions. In 2012, a man sustained multiple broken bones after slipping in the walkway outside his apartment residence. Further complications stemming from both the injury and a preexisting condition threatened the amputation of his lower leg. In the end, a personal injury lawyer in Virginia was able to win the claimant a structured settlement of $7.75 million on account of the property owner’s lack of snow and ice maintenance as required by law. It’s a heavy price to pay, no bones about it.
#5. Art Theft
In 1994, thieves stole three paintings from the Schirn Kunsthalle art gallery in Frankfurt, Germany. Two of the paintings were by artist, J.M.W Turner and had been loaned from the Tate gallery in London. These pieces were insured for $18 million each and the Tate museum received $36 million in compensation in exchange for the ownership rights to the paintings. The paintings were later recovered, and the museum bought back the ownership rights.
While you may not own a priceless work of art or antique, your personal belongings still have value. Homeowners and renters insurance policies include a provision for protecting your possessions. You will receive a payout if the items are lost, stolen, or destroyed during a natural disaster. The amount of personal belongings coverage will vary depending upon the policy. Typically, homeowners insurance will cover an amount equal to half of the value of the home structure. Renters insurance coverage will vary. If you have an expensive piece of personal property, you may want to have a clause added to your policy for additional protection.
#4. An Easy Target
Cyber insurance is not something that most of us would necessarily need or think of needing. For businesses that store and manage data about their customers such as addresses and credit card numbers, cyber insurance or technology professional liability insurance is an imperative.
In early 2014, retail giant Target announced their data had been breached and the sensitive information of nearly 70 million customers had been stolen from their servers. The cyber theft cost the company $61 million and their insurance carrier was able to cover $44 million of those expenses. If you are concerned about someone stealing from you, then consider purchasing bond insurance. First-party bonds protect your business against employee theft. Third-party bonds will help to protect your clients’ possessions and theft by temporary employees.
#3. Paul Walker
When one of the lead actors dies during the production of a film, the consequences can be very costly. In November 2013, actor Paul Walker died in a fatal car crash just moments after leaving a charity event in Valencia, California. Filming for his latest movie ‘Furious 7’ was still unfinished at the time and Walker’s untimely death left studio execs with a delicate problem. Universal Pictures filed a claim for $50 million which is said to be unprecedented in the way of Hollywood insurance claims. This was to cover the expenses involved in editing, like CGI “face-replacement technology” and script revisions. It is not known if the studio has received payment for their claim as of early 2015.
#2. 9/11 Tragedy
September 11, 2001 will forever live in infamy not only for it’s death toll but for the magnitude of money it cost in damages. The lives of nearly 3,000 people ended in the wake of this senseless tragedy and it is regarded as the most expensive incident in insurance history. The total cost reached a towering sum of $40 billion which was payed out for losses including business interruption, vehicle and property damage, life insurance, liability insurance, aviation liability and workers compensation. Congress created a $7 billion fund to compensate 5,562 family members of the fallen. Payments went to widows and widowers, children and parents.
#1. Hurricane Katrina
In 2005, the Gulf of Mexico was hit by a devastating hurricane trifecta in which more than 4,000 people perished. In the devastating aftermath following Katrina, Rita and Wilma, New Orleans was flooded and the combined damages left behind amounted to approximately $130 billion in insurance claims covered under ‘an act of God’. The enormous estimate comes from the costs of damage to homes and businesses as a result of the storms, as well as compensation for personal injuries and fatalities during the hurricanes.
