In the spirit of the festive season, Lloyd's has revealed its most bizarre coverage written in recent memory – the protection of Santa's beard.
Brady White, an actor turned professional Santa who visits the likes of Pamela Anderson and Rene Russo, is the face of Father Christmas for Macy's department store in New York.
Known as “Santa to the Stars”, he has had his whiskers protected by Lloyd's for a decade.
“There is no doubt that there could only be one place where Father Christmas could have his beard insured and that was Lloyd's. All sorts of things can happen to Santa's beard and I wanted to know that it was protected. Children can be a little rough so it gets tugged and pulled a lot, and then there is the soot and the danger of being singed when I head down the chimneys.”
Lloyd's underwriter Jonathan Thomas, although not the man behind this risk, was once approached with a similar issue, he says: "Brady White's needs are not dissimilar to the entertainer whose chest hair I offered to cover a few years ago."
"A natural growth white beard is a valuable business asset to a highly specialised performer like Brady and thus it is exactly the sort of service industry asset protection that Lloyd's specialises in.
“Unlike most insurance companies, our Lloyd's policy would not expect Brady to make do with a ‘stick-on' if he permanently lost his facial hair through an accident during the policy period. With his Hollywood clientele it is unlikely that a fake beard could fool children accustomed to seeing their parents transformed into all manner of characters on the silver screen.”
