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Heard the one about the guy that threw his boomerang only to see it come swinging and swishing its way through the air and knocking him out? Well, he ended up being dissuaded from prosecuting the boomerang manufacturer and taking himself to court for an insurance payout. Yes, this is not fiction, but the reality of the insurance policies that we have today. The Kentucky man threw his boomerang and ended up raking in $300,000 from himself. Larry Rutman caused bodily harm and damage through negligence and carelessness (to himself). Rutman even stated that it was for an event like this that he had been paying in so much. What goes around comes around? He said: “I paid all that insurance for a long time just in case something unforeseen like this ever happened.” The bodily harm and damage resulted in Rutman’s memory being affected and he being ‘oversexed’. Whatever will they come up with next?
More fool the insurance companies for allowing a loophole like this. But, many of us sit at home, pay out insurance and when the time comes to venture out into the big wide world, we realize that we aren’t actually covered by the policies that we have carried around with us for years and years. The insurance companies wouldn’t be in business if they weren’t making a mint and they certainly wouldn’t be employing an army of spectacled, boring office rats to slave over the small print in their favor if they weren’t getting everything they needed from our insurance policies. We need insurance, but that doesn’t mean that you are going to get a payout.
But, today life insurance, for example, is falling in popularity amongst Americans. It’s only 7th on the list of what is considered a financial priority today and only 40% of Americans are actually worried about having life insurance. 66% of Americans are more concerned about having enough money to live on when they retire, rather than worrying about what they are going to be able to leave behind them when they die from an insurance company. 40% of Americans don’t have any form of life insurance at all. 20% of those that do have insurance on their lives only have so because they were given it as part of their work package.
For health insurance, 90% of those that have no health insurance of any form are low to moderate-income families. That means that they are 400% below poverty in the USA. 30% of those that do not possess health insurance end up going without needed treatment. There are still 41 million people in the USA that do not have health-insurance coverage today.
Whatever you have in the way of insurance, there is a rare chance of you ending up like Rutman and throwing your boomerang and getting that big payout to sit at home on. But, there are those that have managed to get the biggest claims approved by their insurance companies. So, whether it be for your pet or for your car or your life, here are the biggest insurance claims ever and their payouts.
Biggest Insurance Claims
15. Most-Expensive Pet
The most-expensive claim stood at $22,000 and it was in 2010 for feline renal surgery. Apparently, the pet as not a pedigree feline, but just a good-old gutter cat that somebody had decided to insure.
14. Rowan Atkinson
The British actor that is famous for his role as Mr. Bean had the most expensive automobile-insurance claim in history. The actor crashed his £640,000 McLaren F1, resulting in a payout by his insurance company for £900,000 in repairs. The insurance company had agreed to pay out that much since the price of that car had risen to in the region of £3.5 million when the accident happened in 2011. Prior to this, the highest payout by an insurance company for a car had stood at just over £300,000.
13. Bugatti Veyron
In 2007, engineers crashed 2 Bugatti Veyrons while running tests for a prototype. Each of the vehicles was worth over $800,000.
12. Ice Slip
In 2012 in Virginia one winter a resident of an apartment building went outside and slipped on the ice and the snow. A few bones were broken in the resident’s legs and complications led to the person being amputated of their lower legs. The claim was settled for a payout in compensation of $7.75 million because the landlord of the building had failed to clear the ice and snow in front of the building. He was therefore held responsible and it stands as the highest payout.
11. Car Accident
In 2012, Agnes Collier, a 17-year-old student was paralyzed in a car accident, resulting from a head-on collision. Her mother was also killed in the accident. The young girl received $11.5 million in compensation and all medical expenses, coming to a total of an estimated $37 million for her lifetime.
10. SARS
The SARS outbreak is the largest epidemic payout in the history of insurance in the world today. The SARS outbreak started in 2003 in China and it soon spread to some 37 countries in the world, within just a few weeks. Claims are estimated to have stood at $1 billion for travel cancellations and business being interrupted.
9. Indian Ocean
The Indian Ocean earthquake and tsunami that took place in 2004 is one the biggest natural-disaster payout. The result of the earthquake and the tsunami brought about claims that were in the region of $1 billion due to natural disaster and the lives lost.
8. Volcano
Iceland’s Eyjafjallajokull volcano erupted in 2010 and it ended up costing the European Union some €2.5 billion ($3.5 billion). Tens of millions of passengers were grounded and flights cancelled across the EU because of the tiny dust particles that were spread into the air. What isn’t included in that figure is also the knock-on effect felt by other airlines outside of the EU that were stopped from flying over parts of Europe. Even the price of petrol fell because of the airlines’ not being able to fly.
7. US / Canada Outage
In 2003, 10 million Canadians and 45 million Americans lost their power supply in the biggest outage in history. The cost of that stands at $6 billion to cover transport being stopped, flights being grounded and business being looted or unable to work.
6. China Earthquake
Millions of Chinese were left homeless in 2008 when the earthquake hit and the natural disaster cost the lives of more than 68,000 people. The cost of the earthquake in financial terms ended up hitting the $20 billion mark.
5. Japan’s Tsunami
The tsunami that hit Japan cost the total sum of $40 billion. However there are some that believe that the aggregate cost of all losses incurred could reach some $100 billion.
4. 9/11
When the Twin Towers were used as the target for terrorists, the financial cost amounted to some $40 billion being paid out in insurance claims, due to loss of business, property and of course life.
3. Lehman Brothers
When the bank collapsed it saw claims not only for Lehman Brothers but also collateral-damage claims that were being made by related companies to this bank. Some state that payouts have been in the region of $100 billion, although the exact sum is confidential to insurance companies.
2. 2005 Hurricane
There was a death toll of more than 4,000 when Hurricanes Katrina, Rita and Wilma struck in North America in 2005. The cost in payouts is said to have reached $130 billion and it is the most expensive natural disaster in the history of insurance. Homes were damaged, business failed and property was lost as well as lives and personal injury.
1. 2008 Financial Crisis
The 2008 financial crisis was the worst in the history of the financial markets. The 1930 Great Depression was not a patch on what the world went through. Insurance companies had to pay out some $21 trillion in compensation and claims.
Insurance in the USA is big business and the American insurance industry is the biggest in the world with regard to revenue. For the past four years now, the insurance industry in the country has exceeded $1.2 trillion. The US has some of the largest insurance companies in the world including MetLife, Prudential Financial and Allstate, for example. There are some 2 million people that are employed by the industry and the insurance industry brings in 40% of Gross Domestic Product of financial institutions.
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