Can I take Life Insurance out on a celebrity or someone I don’t know?

Can I buy life insurance for someone else?

Yes!

But don’t get too excited, it comes with some pretty heavy restrictions.

Essentially to insure somebody else you need to prove what is called in the insurance industry an ‘insurable interest’. In short this means that you need to prove that if this person was to die, you would have a justifiable financial loss as a result.

Let’s take a couple of examples:

Example 1:

Lucy decides that she is going to take out Life Insurance on behalf of her best friend Chloe in the event that her friend was to pass away. Chloe and Lucy don’t rely on each other financially.
Even if her friend was okay with this, Lucy wouldn’t be able to take out a Life Insurance policy on Chloe’s behalf because they don’t financially contribute to each other’s lives and, therefore, Lucy wouldn’t be able to demonstrate ‘justifiable financial loss’.
The result: No insurable interest. Lucy can’t get Life Insurance on behalf of Chloe.

Example 2:

John has been in business with Susan for over 15 years. They run a consultancy with the both of them taking on client work and contracts. John decides to take out Life Insurance on Susan in the case that she was to pass away. John is successful in taking out the insurance as he can prove that there financial interests are linked enough to show a justifiable financial loss if Susan was to pass away.
The result: Insurable interest. John can get Life Insurance on behalf of Susan.

Normally, people who want to take out a Life Insurance policy on behalf of someone else tend to take out what is called a Joint Life Insurance policy.

This means that if either of you were to die or to become terminally ill then the other person would receive a lump sum payout. (As long as this falls within the agreed terms and the policy is still active).

Can you take out Life Insurance for someone you don’t know, such as a celebrity?

Unless you can prove you would lose out financially if this person were to die (known as justifiable financial loss), then you can’t take out Life Insurance for someone you don’t know, such as a celebrity.

Do celebrities take out life insurance?

Celebrities might be rich and famous but they are human like the rest of us, so yes they can and do take out life insurance. However, they generally will be taking out insurance for significantly more cover than the average joe. Sometimes they don’t even cover their life, very often they cover body parts, particularly if it links to their career.

Let’s have a run down of some of the most extravagant insurance contracts taken out by celebrities:

David Beckham

Golden balls decided to insure his legs for $109 million in case anything happened to him when playing. He later decided his legs were not enough, and extended the cover to his entire body when he became a fashion model.

Kim Kardashian

Kim Kardashian is famous for lots of things, but her famous curves (and bum) are part and parcel of the beauty empire she has created. You guessed it, Kim decided to insure her bum for $15 million.

Keith Richards

The famous rocker probably wouldn’t have gotten life insurance during his hay day, because he flew a little too close to the sun with his drug fuelled lifestyle. He did however manage to insure his hands. You can’t play the guitar without them after all, and it is covered for $1.7 million.

Mariah Carey

You would assume that Mariah would insure those vocal chords given she is best known as a gifted singer, but in actual fact she insured her legs for a whopping $1 billion!!