To the naysayers, I'll say this. Do you have life insurance? A typical life insurance will pay 250K, and for that you pay ~100$ per year. Who wants to risk 250K for 100$ per year? Is this a joke? No, it's called insurance and it's based on probabilities.
Insurance companies don't escrow that 250K though. It comes out of their funds when needed. So a better analogy is an agreement to insure you, but not escrow the bitcoins. That is especially appropriate in an unsafe and unregulated market (unlike with an insurance company).