Does 007’s lifestyle make him uninsurable?
Outside of the usual risk appetite, Mr Bond is often involved in high-speed car chases, drink-driving, under the spell of his vodka martinis, extreme travel and many more thrill seeking adventures.
He may have a licence to kill, but for many insurers, looking at the high risk of accidents, fraud, and many more elements, this would be a great cause for concern. In short, 007 would be uninsurable.
Shaken not stirred
With the new Bond movie, SPECTRE, premiering soon, Towergate, an award winning and a leading insurance intermediary decided to work out the claims, costs and losses of Daniel Craig’s Bond and his employers MI6.
Towergate wanted to speculate on some of the key events in Casino Royale, Quantum of Solace, and Skyfall – the premiums, the policies, the expenses, claims and costs.
So just what did Craig’s Bond cost MI6? In order to speculate on these issues Towergate made some assumptions about the man himself. His name is James Bond, age 47; his occupation is that of a civil servant, his address is London SW3 and his salary; it is assumed is £100, 000.
Fly another day
Unconcerned about his travel insurance or flight costs, Bond has travelled to all corners of the world. Towergate mapped out his travel routes in each film, totaled up the flight costs (first or business class of course) and even worked out how much time Bond would have needed to spend travelling.
For Casino Royale, the total hours spent traveling were 113 hours and 37 minutes, with a total cost of £23,410. For Quantum of Solace, the total time spent traveling would be 112 hours and 33 minutes, with a total cost of £27, 364. And lastly, Skyfall came in with the lowest time required to travel at 68 hours and 20 minutes, with a total cost of £15, 439.
Of the movies, Bond’s travel insurance would need to cover 25 trips to 14 countries, using 15 modes of transport. His travel insurance policy premium would be £448.98 including£10,000,000 for emergency medical expenses, £2,000,000 personal liability and £2,000 for personal possessions.
Travel insurance policies usually cover some activities, however, Bond epitomises ‘non-standard’ activities. A selection of 007’s more adventurous activities were looked at to determine the level of risk involved. For example, in Skyfall, Bond played a drinking game with a deadly scorpion on his hand. Accordingly, this would be excluded in a policy. Similarly, another exclusion would be in Casino Royale, where Bond partook in a parkour chase over cranes and building sites in Madagascar. On the other hand, in Skyfall, he would be covered for the Komodo dragon fighting in Shang Hai, China.
With only £2000 personal possessions cover, what items might he be particularly worried about?
The list goes on to name the few such as Tom Ford sunglasses valued at £250, Zero Halliburton Briefcase at £240, ST Dupont cufflinks worth £150, a tailored Brioni dinner jacket valued at £3000, an Omega Seamaster watch priced at £1800 and a Tom Ford tuxedo to the price of £2700.
License to kill
Whilst some policies do not include cover for firearms, Towergate made the exception. The military kit policy premium would be £392.07 with the inclusions below.
Source: Towergate Insurance
Bond brings a wave of damage and destruction with him wherever he goes. From luxury hotels blown to smithereens, to an entire line of cars damaged, there are too many instances to even count. There are many other bills that would find their way through MI6's letterbox due to Bond's shenanigans.
More importantly, there is staff absence to consider. Not to mention Bond has been kidnapped, tortured, and even shot by a co-worker over the last three films. This takes a whole new turn on employer’s liability.
Looking at some of the vehicle insurance policies MI6 would have needed to take out during Craig’s incarnation, Towergate kicked off with the old favourite.
See the full estimate here.
And so– the total costs Towergate is speculating that MI6 would have needed to pay throughout the last three films is £24,477,513.90.
