When someone mentions an insurance office, what comes to mind? Surely, you envision a spartan office with the smell of cheap coffee and toner cartridges, rows of identical desks, and a phosphorescent hum from garish lights. The setting may be industry-standard, but there’s not much else standard about the world of insurance and the stranger-than-fiction claims that come through. We’ve compiled a few unbelievable but true stories from the insurance industry that will show that your paperwork in this business can be anything but boilerplate.
An Atomic Drop—in Policies for Wrestlers
The words “wrestling is fake” will cause professional wrestlers and their fans to go berserk. Don’t say it to anyone at the firm of Lloyd’s of London, either. In the 1990s, as the wrestling industry entered a downturn, wrestlers got wise to a Lloyd’s of London disability policy that offered lucrative payouts to athletes with career-ending injuries.
These underwriters underestimated just how real pro wrestling could be and happily insured several stars of the squared circle, believing the firm would have no reason to pay out on a scripted sport. Later, pumped-up policyholders such as Curt Hennig and Rick Rude cited their aches and pains as career-ending, retired, and collected on their generous policies. Lloyd’s has since become much more stringent about approving policies in the wrestling business.
Sick Day Shakedowns
“Food poisoning” is a reliable standby when you need to take a sick day but need to stretch the truth a bit to get there. One woman stretched it even further—insurance fraud. A New Hampshire woman wrote letters to restaurants claiming she had gotten sick by eating their food. Risk-averse restaurants used their insurance partners to settle these false claims, but when the perpetrator got too greedy by involving family members, the scam unraveled. She had to pay restitution to the insurers she defrauded—instead of sending back meals, she was sending back money.
The Great Florida Heist
But it’s not just policyholders who try to get away with something. The National Heritage Life Insurance Company went down in flames when investors acquired the company with money they didn’t really have and defrauded the agency with a series of crooked deals that funneled revenues to associates of organized crime. It’s a common misconception in the insurance industry that the job is boring, but the fall of the National Heritage Life Insurance Company would have made a compelling movie.
And Party Every Day
One of the unbelievable but true stories from the insurance industry is that Gene Simmons, frontman of the iconic rock band KISS, took out a policy on his tongue. It only makes sense: after all, as a vocalist, the star singer needs to be able to articulate every word. More importantly, every soldier in the KISS Army knows Simmons’s lolling tongue is as much a part of the spectacle as the face paint. It also proves that the members of KISS are, like insurance agents themselves, nothing if not savvy businessmen.
