More likely than not you’ve got at least one, if not two, three, or four forms of insurance.  Car insurance of some kind is required in every state – which means every responsible driver has it.  Homeowner’s insurance is required of anyone looking to get a mortgage.  Likewise, renter’s insurance protects those of us who rent our homes.  Health insurance helps cover the cost of medical treatment and prescription drugs – if you can get it through your employer or afford to pay for it yourself.  Doctor, lawyers, and other professionals are required to have liability insurance to protect them against malpractice claims.

Then there is the myriad of other supplemental insurance policies available to a consumer: life insurance, disability insurance, long-term care insurance… the list goes on.

Well, thanks to entrepreneur and divorcé John Logan, you can now add “divorce insurance” to your list of insurance options.  A story inTime Magazine has the details: having gone through a divorce himself, Logan knew first hand how financially disruptive (if not devastating) a divorce can be.  So, he developed and launched his own insurance company (cleverly named WedLock) which sells policies to married folks with a less than optimistic view of happily ever after.

Around $16.00 per month buys you about $1250.00 of coverage, with an added premium of $250.00 for every year that you stay married after your fourth anniversary. You have to be married for at least four years to collect any payout.

Ostensibly, your divorce insurance payout would help you meet at least some of the expenses of divorcing such as the cost of setting up a separate residence and paying an attorney – which expenses can and do add up fast in many divorces.

Critics remark that buying divorce insurance “implies from the beginning that divorce is already an option.”  There’s also a question as to whether such a policy is really worthwhile.  As the Time article explains, a policy holder who paid for ten units of insurance over ten years of marriage will have paid $19,188.00 and get back $27,500.00, a net gain of just over $8000.00. Certainly that’s not small change – but is it worth the psychological effect of placing a monthly bet on the stability of your marriage?

Would you buy divorce insurance?  If you’re already divorced, do you wish you’d had the option of divorce insurance?