life insurance

What's Your Worth on the Body-Parts Market

They say there's a price on everything these days, and your body parts are no exception. Worker's compensation, lawsuits and accidental death and dismemberment (AD&D) policies give monetary worth to your body parts, depending on what profession you are in. If you are injured and lose a limb in an accident, your profession (and how famous you are) will factor in on determining how much your limbs are worth on the body-parts market. For example, if a famous guitar player lost a finger or thumb, the part would be worth far more than if a regular Joe Schmoe lost them.

Typically, in the event you lose a body part on the job, worker's compensation will cover the cost of your injury. Each part of your body is assigned a set number of weeks for compensation purposes. The general equation they use when determining the worth of your body part is by taking a percentage of your weekly salary and multiplying it by the number of weeks assigned to the lost part

Accidental death and dismemberment
AD&D, like worker's compensation, has a "schedule" for body parts in relation to compensation. If you claim AD&D because of loss of sight in one eye, you will get 50 percent of your policy because you still have effective vision in your other eye. If you lose sight in both eyes, you will receive a 100 percent payout. Many times, the payout from an AD&D may be 25 percent of the policy-it all depends on what body part you lose use of.

Historically, legs used to be worth far more than arms, but now, they are just about equal. This is because many jobs require keyboarding and assembly skills, and without hands and fingers, the tasks may be nearly impossible. And when it comes to your hands, your thumbs are worth much more than your fingers, mainly because the loss of your thumb inhibits your ability to grasp objects.