September 16, 2010. Divorce Insurance Now Available

By Josh D. Simon

Readers of a certain vintage will remember, perhaps with a shiver, how airport departure terminals offered very short-term life insurance for those about to soar the (unfriendly?) skies. 

Well, if you thought that was the ultimate fusion of pragmatism, Murphy's Law, and good ol' fashioned "right time at the right place" Made-in-the-USA commercialism, feast your awareness on this latest offering from a North Carolina insurance company: divorce insurance.

Curiously labeled "WedLock," the insurance isn't designed keep people from getting divorced (though that could be the next innovation...). Rather, it's insurance that kicks in if, like about 50% of them, a marriage goes sour and the policy holder is stuck with hefty legal bills and other divorce-related expenses (e.g. rent or mortgage on a new home, etc.).

Not everyone, however, is totally enamored with the idea; including Family Lawyer Jim Billion, who told Keloland Television in South Dakota that divorce insurance may not be worth the premiums ($16/month for every $1250 in coverage), considering that some divorces can be done relatively inexpensively.  

Billion also points out that the WedLock policy owners must wait four years before filing a claim; a limitation designed to prevent folks from getting insured and cashing in ("cha-ching"!). Furthermore, he points out with staggering irony that any payout would probably have to be split evenly between former spouses.

Billion likely speaks for a number of family lawyers when he suggests that a prenuptial agreement is a wiser route, especially since it's something that both spouses are aware of and agree to; unlike divorce insurance, which one spouse could conceivably purchase in secret. 

Frankly, if one spouse is purchasing divorce insurance in secret (or purchasing anything in secret for that matter), an impending marriage may be doomed long before the 'I do's" are exchanged, and someone's future brother-in-law vomits wedding cake all over the guitar player even though he promised he wouldn't do that "after last time."

(Perhaps they should offer insurance for that?)

Read more informative and interesting divorce news here: http://www.divorcemag.com/articles/Divorce_News/

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