Family members of Titan sub victims will likely be able to collect life insurance on their wealthy loved ones even though they signed a waiver, legal experts say

• A waiver won't stop families of the Titan sub victims from collecting life insurance, legal experts said.
• Many life insurance underwriters specifically ask prospective buyers about their risky hobbies.

Neither their loved ones' dangerous hobbies nor a doomed signature on OceanGate's death waiver is likely to stop family members of the Titan submersible passengers from collecting life insurance claims for the now-dead explorers, two legal experts told Insider.

"There's no question they will be able to collect," Neama Rahmani, president of West Coast Trial Lawyers and a former federal prosecutor, said. "With first-party insurance, which is your own insurance, it's tough to deny coverage unless there is a specific exclusion."

Coast Guard officials on Thursday said the submersible, which disappeared during an exploratory dive of the Titanic shipwreck on Sunday, suffered a catastrophic loss of the pressure chamber" soon after it started its mission, prompting the vessel to implode.

Much has been made of the apparent waiver signed by passengers on OceanGate's Titanic dives, which reportedly mentioned the risk of death multiple times within its first page.

But legal experts said the waiver is unlikely to impact whether family members ultimately get their payday.

Most life insurance policies have a standard set of characteristics, according to Patrick Luff, the founding partner of Luff Law Firm and a former law school professor who deals in personal injury cases.

Common exclusions for life insurance payouts include deaths by suicide or drug use, Rahmani said.

Some policies also deal specifically with risky or dangerous behavior.

"When you apply for a life insurance policy, they generally ask you whether you have in the past two years or plan to engage in dangerous or risky behaviors," Luff told Insider. "The reason why is obvious: They want to see if you're at a higher risk of dying as a result of these activities."

Some policies will state specific activities, such as scuba diving, paragliding, or bungee jumping. Other policies, meanwhile, include a catch-all phrase that simply covers "other dangerous behaviors," Luff said.

But a propensity for perilous pastimes doesn't necessarily exclude a person from being insured.

"Even if you engage in these behaviors, that doesn't mean you're uninsurable," Luff said. "It just means you may have to pay more for your policy."

People who do engage in dangerous activities often have to fill out a special questionnaire that gives additional information to the underwriter about the level of risks they agree to insure. Frequent risky behavior can thus incur higher premiums.

"That risk would presumably be included in the pricing of the police," Luff said. "It costs more, the greater the risk."

The ultra-wealthy and billionaire passengers on board the Titan, assuming they carried life insurance, are likely to have held high-level policies, Luff said.

"If you're worth a billion dollars or you have 40 or 50 million dollars a year in income, you may choose to insure that," he said.

The discovery of the Titan's debris on the ocean floor this week is likely the impetus to a long list of legal issues and lawsuits that will stem from the disaster, both Luff and Rahmani said.

"This tragedy is unprecedented," Luff said. "Even the far-sighted nature of life insurance underwriters may not have envisioned this particular scenario."