Do Your Clients Employ Nannies, Dog Walkers, Bear Handlers? Insurance Review May Be in Order

A spectacular and unusual example of someone who didn’t carry insurance is Sam Mazzola, who ran an exotic animal business in Ohio, World Animal Studios, which he claimed ceased operations in 2005 in an apparent effort to reduce unpaid workers’ compensation premiums in a bankruptcy declaration. However, Mazzola still owned an assortment of large and dangerous animals–a lion, tigers, bears, and wolves–and a man apparently caring for the animals was mauled to death by one of the bears. Variously described as “like a member of [the] family” who “helped out with the animals” and “an experienced animal handler,” Brent Kandra died after opening the bear’s cage to feed it. Mazzola is currently under investigation.

If you are an advisor that has clients with unusual businesses, you might have to search a bit harder to make sure they have adequate coverage for themselves, their employees, and their operations, but it can be done. According to a story by NU Online News Service, plenty of companies specialize in unusual risks, and deal with the unexpected every day, like the metal stamping plant that kept guard tigers on the premises. Even the less exotic but more abstruse can find coverage, such as the company that collects and freezes bull semen, a common method of producing dairy cattle: through artificial insemination.