Leave it to the free market to work around problems created by over-regulation. Now you can offset some of the financial risk that comes with marriage by buying
divorce insurance.
“WedLock” is a new type of casualty insurance that gives the unhappily married a payout after he or she is divorced.
It’s seems the founder came up with the idea after being burned by divorce himself:
[He] conceived the idea for Wedlock following his divorce 10 years ago. “My finances went to hell in a handbag,” he said. “I thought I can't be the only schmuck this is happening to. That was my ‘aha' moment.”
If you ask me, this is a welcome innovation that addresses one of the key issues I have with marriage. Unfortunately, it doesn’t look like it’s going to be a solution. Without prohibativley expenisve premiums, your payout probably isn’t going to put a significant dent in what you might be on the hook for in terms of alimony and/or child support:
If the insured on a standard WedLock policy divorces after four years, [the holder] would have paid $7,675.20 in premiums and receive a claim payout out of $12,500. If the insured divorces after 10 years, the policyholder would have handed over $19,188 and would receive a payout of $27,500.
Meaning a net gain of roughly $5K to $8K, which probably won't even cover the legal fees of your divorce:
Locally, divorces cost $5,000 to $10,000 per each divorcing spouse... They easily can be $20,000, $30,000 and more apiece for contested divorces involving child custody.
So it seems you're a loser either way (pun intended). Not even considering alimony or child support. But isn’t that the nature of insurance? After all, if it were a good deal for you, the insurance company would go out of business. I recommend taking those premiums and investing them in the stock market... or better yet, just don't get married!
