What’s in a name? Plenty, if you work in insurance.
Whether you’re a claims litigation handler, a commercial account executive, a corporate insurance account handler or a casualty claims professional, there are some monikers that will give you a jolt. Each of them has had a huge impact on the world of insurance . . . and in some cases the repercussions are still rumbling on.
Rowan Atkinson
When the star of Mr Bean slid off the road on a patch of ice he walked away from the crash with a slight injury to his shoulder. His car didn’t escape so lightly.
The McLaren F1, one of only 64 ever built, cost the actor’s insurance company £900,000 in repairs. The car had cost £640,000 when new, so could have been a write-off, but by the time of the crash it had risen in value to £3.5million, triggering the most expensive motor insurance claim in history and becoming a legend among claims handlers.
Eyjafjallajokull.
You might not be able to pronounce it, but if you were one of the millions of passengers who were left stranded for days in foreign airports, you won’t have been able to forget it.
In 2010 this Icelandic volcano, which reads like an optician’s eye chart, woke up from decades of slumber and started belching out ash and smoke in a giant plume that plunged the northern hemisphere into a modern day Norse saga.
For six days, flights across the UK and Europe were grounded for fear that dust would cause engines to stall. The disruption continued for weeks and cost businesses in Europe more than £2 billion in compensation and lost revenue.
Insurance pros beware: since its last big show, Eyjafjallajokull has given more warning grumbles.
Leonardo Notarbartolo
He sounds like a Hollywood actor and, if they ever make Oceans 14, it’s his story that will be told. Notarbartolo was the mastermind behind the heist of 2003 when thieves stole loose diamonds, gold and jewellery valued at more than $100 million from the Antwerp Diamond Centre.
Posing as a diamond expert, Notarbartolo had rented office space in the complex, allowing access through the security perimeter for him and his team.
It would have been the perfect crime, if one of the thieves hadn’t dropped a partially eaten sandwich near the crime scene, giving the Belgian police DNA evidence.
Despite this the loot was never recovered and Notarbartolo was released after ten years in jail.
Thefts cost insurance companies billions, so this is one story without a happy ever after ending.
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