History Main / HeroInsurance

This is sometimes {{handwave}}d with the heroes actually ''[[LampshadeHanging mentioning]]'' that they've got insurance that will cover this--and is actually a specific rule featured in the old [[UsefulNotes/TheComicsCode Comics Code]]--but it's unclear how any insurance company could do this and still turn a profit. Logically, they shouldn't be able to pay for the on-panel destruction unless they are also collecting mammoth premiums from many other superheroes who ''don't'' make big claims. So whenever Superman punches through a wall, somewhere, a less-violent hero like ComicBook/{{Oracle}} sees her premiums go up? That money has to come from somewhere! Other times the handwave comes from the fact that the hero [[Fiction500 is a billionaire]] and could pay for the rebuilds.

* {{Exaggerated|Trope}} with Atomica in one ''Webcomic/FafnirTheDragon'' story. A superhero in a {{Stripperiffic}} costume who, apart from the MostCommonSuperpower, is ImmuneToBullets (which causes bullets the robbers [[ShootingSuperman shoot at her]] to ricochet into every nearby hostage), SuperStrength (which allows her to use a bank vault door as a shield to protect hostages from gunfire... only to drop it on top of them when she goes of to pursue one of the robber), the ability to melt guns (which sets the robbers on fire) and the ability to gently knock out a robber with a thrown object (at the edge of the curb, where his head gets crushed by the police car). Her being TheDitz, she never actually notices and thinks she's a [[UsefulNotes/TheGoldenAgeOfComicBooks Golden Age Superhero]] and the StrawmanNewsMedia praises her all the way.

* {{Lampshade|Hanging}}d in the 2001 enhanced remake of ''VideoGame/SpyHunter'': in the first half of the game, you fail a mission objective if you cause too many civilian casualties (about 4), but they don't prevent you from moving on to the next mission. In the second half of the game, it's explained the agency's insurance provider has altered their policy, and ANY civilian casualties are no longer acceptable (although if you complete enough of the other objectives, you can usually advance).

* Averted in the 1958 sci-fi thriller ''Literature/{{Gold in the Sky}}'' by Alan E. Nourse. Our heroes are kidnapped by Merrill Tawney, the CorruptCorporateExecutive of an AsteroidMining corporation, and are held prisoner on his spaceship. They succeed in sabotaging the spaceship and use Tawney as a hostage to escape, but wonder why he's acting so smug when they take him back to Mars to be handed over to the [[UNIsASuperpower United Nations Patrol]]. Instead, the UN arrests ''them'' for kidnapping and {{space pira|tes}}cy while Tawney laughs his head off.

* Averted in ''Literature/DragonBones'': When the heroes travel through a country where people from their country are universally hated, and no one sells them anything, they ration the food, and make do with what they have, instead of stealing things. Also, after killing some bandits, they give back everything that belonged to the village people. Eventually, this pays off and people are friendlier to them. [[spoiler:When, at the end, Ward destroys a whole castle, it is his ''own'' castle, so no one can be angry at him for damaging their property.]]
* In a ''Series/TheManFromUncle'' novelization, Solo and Kuryakin actually give a woman UNCLE's insurance agency's card, to pay for the hole they cut in her floor.

** Before the [[Literature/HarryPotterAndTheOrderOfThePhoenix fifth book]], Fudge is quite committed to providing this for Harry, making several special exceptions for him to avoid him getting into too much trouble. He considers Harry, as "the boy who lived" a special case, a DoubleStandard that Snape criticizes, noting that Harry is better off being treated like any other student (a valid point, though hollow given Snape's bias to treat Harry ''worse'' than any other student). This bites Fudge in the ass when he attempts to dredge up these instances to smear Harry, at which Dumbledore points out that Fudge himself was happy to dismiss them at the time.
** In ''Literature/HarryPotterAndTheDeathlyHallows'', after a battle in a cafe, Harry and the others take the time to actually repair the damage. Only to save their own hides. Other Death Eaters would've seen the damage and known where they were. However, it is very considerate of Hermione to pay for the food they steal while they're on the run.
* ''Literature/SpiderManSinisterSixTrilogy': ''Spider-Man: Secret of the Sinister Six'' features a radio advertisement for metahuman insurance, including testimonials from people who had the Hulk thrown through their kitchen.
* ''Literature/TheDogsOfWar''. The mercenaries planning a coup in a small African republic are told to take out insurance for a short sea voyage from Europe to Africa. Any survivors would swear that the covered party fell overboard, or lost a limb due to shifting cargo during a storm.

* ''Literature/EnchantedForestChronicles'': Book 1 (''Dealing With Dragons'') mentions that a famous hero is mocked because, when he threw a rampaging giant into a lake to drown it, the resulting flood actually did more damage than the giant itself would have.
* Averted in Creator/SimonRGreen's ''{{Literature/Nightside}}'', where the protagonist, John Taylor, is now classified under Acts of Gods by the insurance companies.
* When the [[Literature/XWingSeries Wraiths]] start a BarBrawl as phase one of their latest ZanyScheme, they actually pay for the damages to the bar. Or more accurately, they rob the soldiers they had beaten up and use that money to pay for the damages.
* ''[[http://clarkesworldmagazine.com/gregory_07_13_reprint/ The Illustrated Biography of Lord Grimm]]'' by Daryl Gregory shows the collateral damage among citizens who happen to be living in a country ruled by a supervillain when it's 'invaded' for the umpteenth time by American superheroes... WhatDoYouMeanItsNotPolitical
* In ''{{Literature/Shadowboy}}'' , Hero Insurance is a literal requirement to be a licensed hero with individual premiums for collateral, liability and medical, depending upon the hero's destructiveness and durability.
* Averted in ''Literature/LockwoodAndCo'', where the heroes' negligence makes them ineligible for their fines to be covered by the [[ParanormalInvestigation ghost-hunting]] [[GovernmentAgencyOfFiction government agency]].
* Literature/{{Quiller}} is not allowed to steal or damage private property during the course of a mission, and he's always griping about how his expenses are scrutinized minutely. This is sometimes used as a {{handwave}} as to why the British spy doesn't just Film/JamesBond his way out of a situation.
* In ''The Specialist'' by Gayle Rivers the mercenary protagonist is recruited for a mission into Beirut. He doesn't take out insurance but mentions there's nothing to stop him from doing so, as no insurance company would be told he was thrown off a Druze command post with a knife between his shoulder blades. The most violent death that would happen to him officially would be a car accident.
* In the superhero novel ''Just Cause'', this trope is parodied by playing it straight: the titular organization does in fact have insurance to cover damages caused by their battles, as do most other superhero organizations. The "most" part concerns protagonist Mustang Sally, as the previous group she was a part of trashed a science hall in the first few chapters in a failed attempt to get a supervillain.
* Similarly, if not as explicit as ''Just Cause'', insurance is mentioned in the ''Wearing the Cape'' series, as are rules of engagement that EXPLICITLY say make every effort to avoid civilians in superhuman fights. And woe to the superhero who tries to play the ScrewTheRulesImDoingWhatsRight clause without an ironclad excuse.
* ''Literature/WordsOfRadiance'' (second book of ''Literature/TheStormlightArchive''): A more low-key version. Shallan manages to convince a gang of deserters to protect her caravan from another gang of deserters, promising them clemency for their crimes in return, despite the fact that there's a kill-on-sight order out on them. Once she gets to civilization and speaks to Highprince Dalinar, he agrees without a second thought, noting that he's never liked hanging soldiers, deserters or not. She does snarkily remind the deserters that it's only clemency for ''past'' crimes, not any future ones.

* ''Literature/TheHenchmansSurvivalGuide'' solves this from the opposite end. All hero and villain activity is restricted to Little Big City, and one of the conditions of living, or visiting, is signing paperwork to waive your rights to sue for damages.
* Averted in ''Gold in the Sky'', the 1958 sci-fi thriller by Alan E. Nourse. Our heroes are kidnapped by Merrill Tawney, the CorruptCorporateExecutive of an AsteroidMiner corporation, and are held prisoner on his spaceship. They succeed in sabotaging the spaceship and use Tawney as a hostage to escape, but wonder why he's acting so smug when they take him back to Mars to be handed over to the [[UNIsASuperpower United Nations Patrol]]. Instead the UN arrests ''them'' for kidnapping and space piracy while Tawney laughs his head off.

* {{Lampshade|Hanging}}d in ''Series/{{Charmed|1998}}''. In Billie's first battle with a demon, she hits an empty seat in a movie theater with a fireball, and wonders, "Now help me out here, I'm new at this. Who pays for that?" But mostly averted with the No Using Spells for Personal Gain rules: the sisters must cover damage done to the home out of their own pocket. They lampshade it by noting one window repair man likes their business.

* The story ''Fanfic/EigaSentaiScanranger'' {{lampshade|Hanging}}s this, as Tony Stark and Sasha Hammer take a high speed ride down the interstate while Tony barely bother to glance at the road. Later, when this devolves into your aveying the rangers' backers also supply the people and resources to fix everything that gets broken during their fights.

*** And the premiere shows the B-Squad's status by showing them cleaning up the wreckage from the A-Squad's mecha battle. Presumably when [[JustForPun A-Squad goes AWOL]] and B-Squad takes over Earth's defense, they have lower-ranked cadets cleaning up ''their'' messes.

* ''Literature/SinisterSixTrilogy': ''Spider-Man: Secret of the Sinister Six'' features a radio advertisement for metahuman insurance, including testimonials from people who had the Hulk thrown through their kitchen.

* The ComicBook/SpiderMan book ''[[Literature/SinisterSixTrilogy Secret of the Sinister Six]]'' features a radio advertisement for metahuman insurance, including testimonials from people who had the Hulk thrown through their kitchen.

** In the past, Butcher and his team were semi-sponsored by the CIA, but after several bad incidents (an attempt at blackmailing Lamplighter to give them a link inside the Seven lead to him killing [[TheHandler Mallory's]] grandchildren) they were forced to be more of a freelance team and have a difficult time keeping together at the start of the series. Butcher still has numerous contacts because of that past association, though many bridges were also burned. The Boys do end up guilty of or accomplices in numerous murders, robberies, blackmail and trespassing, which forces them to go deep underground once Vought becomes more aware of their existence. They do rebuild their relationships as they uncover legitimate evidence, [[spoiler: leading to all charges against them being dropped at the end of the second season, with talk of them heading an official counter-supe team for the CIA]].
* ''Series/{{Tremors}}'': It's mentioned that, along with weapons and equipment, the U.S. government provides liabilty insurance to Burt Gummer when he has to hunt Graboids. Graboids tend to be destructive. Burt's methods for killing them tend to be...[[StuffBlowingUp more destructive]].

However, many countries ''do'' have laws in place that prevent someone from being held liable for damage caused while saving someone's life. In the USA they are known as Good Samaritan laws. Such laws probably wouldn't apply in some of the more extreme cases of "heroic" destructiveness but is likely an easy enough excuse in situations where the damage caused is minor or where the threat stopped is sufficiently important. However, in some cases like bank robberies and other types of theft, stopping the villain always ends up costing more than just writing off what was stolen.

* ''Fanfic/TheSoulmateTimeline'' has this come up despite the fact that most [[Anime/PuellaMagiMadokaMagica magical girl fights]] take place in other dimensions. Mami, who often needs to leave school to go after witches and also likes to keep up her impeccable record of attendance and avoid trouble, has taken to causing minor damage to the school's gas pipes to induce immediate school evacuations. While she's very careful to only cause enough to be noticed and not endanger anyone, she's been doing this for years to a point the school's chronic gas pipe repairs have caused the city's taxes to go up.

* Fanfic/StuporHeroics: The story completely averts this.

->''"It's tough to do a good deed. Just look at your professional good deed doers. Your [[Radio/TheLoneRanger Lone Rangers]], your Franchise/{{Superman}}, your Franchise/{{Batman}}, your Franchise/SpiderMan, your Elasticman. They are all wearing disguises, masks over their faces. Secret identities. Don't want people to know who they are. It's too much aggravation. 'Superman, yeah thanks for saving my life, but did you have to come through my wall? I'm renting here, I've got a security deposit. What am I supposed to do?'"''

* The Franchise/SpiderMan book ''[[Literature/SinisterSixTrilogy Secret of the Sinister Six]]'' features a radio advertisement for metahuman insurance, including testimonials from people who had the Hulk thrown through their kitchen.

* ''Series/WalkerTexasRanger'': Walker and company never seemed to care about the damage they caused with all the fights they get into, though, in Season 9's "[[Recap/WalkerTexasRangerS9E12DesperateMeasures Desperate Measures]]", Gage did compensate a restaurant owner at least once after he roughed up two thugs who were harassing two women, [[spoiler:who, little did he know at the time, happened to be prison escapees (one was innocent of a crime she didn't commit, while the other is serving life for killing three men), and those thugs in particular would [[KarmaHoudini get away scot-free]] for [[VehicularSabotage cutting the drive belt of his motorcycle]].]]

* This trope becomes a plot point on ''Series/LockwoodAndCo2023'', since the various agencies ''do'' have insurance to cover damages incurred while fighting ghosts, [[spoiler:but Lockwood and Co.'s policy becomes voided when a house burns down in the first episode due to them not following proper procedure, leaving them in the hole for £60,000]].

* ''Series/WalkerTexasRanger'': Walker and company never seemed to care about the damage they caused with all the fights they get into, though, in Season 9's "[[Recap/WalkerTexasRangerS9E12DesperateMeasures Desperate Measures]]", Gage did compensate a restaurant owner at least once after he roughed up two thugs who were harassing two women, [[spoiler:who, little did he know at the time, happened to be prison escapees (one was innocent of a crime she didn't commit, while the other is serving life for killing three men).]]