To help protect their financial stability and address the complex risk management needs of their personal property and casualty exposures, it is crucial that these professional athletes consult with an insurance broker who specializes in understanding and solving for the vulnerabilities that come along with substantial wealth.

Typical insurance programs are not designed to provide adequate protection for the realities professional athletes face, including quickly outgrowing their existing insurance protection as they achieve greater public prominence, increase their income, purchase additional properties and assets, gift assets to family and close friends, and hire assistants and other employees to help them manage their extensive lifestyle.

Customized Insurance Solutions

Accidental Death & Dismemberment (AD&D)

Individual athletes or teams can purchase Accidental Death & Dismemberment. Teams face catastrophic travel risks as a single accident could potentially wipe out the entire team. AD&D can be purchased on the entire team or on specified individual players on the team.

Temporary Total Disability (TDD)

Temporary Total Disability protects athletes or teams against the inability of a player to perform due to injury or illness for a short period of time such as a season.

When a team purchases this coverage on an athlete, athletes can be compensated even when they can’t play, and the team will not suffer a financial drain. This can be an important incentive to the athlete.

Permanent Total Disability (PTD)

Permanent Total Disability protects athletes or teams against career-ending injuries or illnesses. Before benefits are payable, a doctor must certify that the injury or illness is career ending after a certain waiting period such as 12 months.

Cost of Agents and Managers

Athletes who are away from the “public eye” while recovering from a disability need to keep their agents and managers busy in promoting the athlete’s value to potential recipients of their services. Insurance can be purchased to pay for the fees of such agents and managers for their continued promotion services.

College Athletes to be Drafted

College athletes that are talented enough to be drafted have an economic interest that should be protected against unexpected injury. Such an injury, whether sustained in a college game, or in a game of pickup basketball, could jeopardize the future income potential of the athlete without this important coverage.

Team Stop Loss

Many teams can’t afford to buy Temporary Total Disability insurance or Permanent Total Disability insurance on all its players. Therefore, they may only buy these coverages on several key players while self-insuring their exposure for the rest of the team. Other teams may self-insure this exposure on all their players. But what happens if more uninsured players than expected suffer injuries that put them out of action? This could have a disastrous financial impact on any team that self-insures this exposure.

Team Stop Loss coverage can be a solution to limit a team’s overall exposure to a reasonable level since it kicks in once a team’s out of pocket disability losses exceed a certain predetermined limit. The premium cost for Team Stop Loss coverage is much lower than purchasing first dollar disability insurance on each player and it can protect a team against financial disaster.

Image Protection for Manufacturers of Products Endorsed by Athletes 

Athletes are frequently celebrity spokespersons. However, just one mistake such as an arrest, politically incorrect statement, domestic issue with spouse, drug incident, etc. can destroy their positive image and marketability. You may incur costs to pull products off shelves; change packaging; discontinue print, radio, and TV advertising; or run apology advertising. All these exposures are insurable.

Contractual Bonus for Achieving Predetermined Goals

It is not uncommon for teams or sponsors to offer contract incentives in the form of large bonuses for athletes who exceed certain predetermined high-level goals or statistical benchmarks. Insurance can be purchased to fund these bonuses in the event the athlete achieves the goal.

Kidnap, Ransom and Extortion 

Professional athletes can be targets for kidnap, ransom, and extortion because of their high net worth and celebrity status. A Kidnap, Ransom, And Extortion policy can provide financial resources and professional advice and assistance in dealing with these dangerous situations that require quick actions and decisions.