This past weekend as the cold really started to set in the Northeast, I was fortunate enough to head south to Sarasota, Florida, to spend some time with my Merlin Law Group colleagues at our annual retreat. The retreat is a great time for us to get together as one team, collaborate and improve our practice through some great seminars given by people who are the top in the fields. It gives us a great opportunity to collaborate with the best of the best in a small and intimate setting.
Every year, we also have a dinner with a fun theme imagined by our very creative COO, Keona Williams. This year’s theme was Old Hollywood Glam. The result was the ladies looking lovely and the men doing their best James Bond impressions:
That’s great Rob, but what does this have to do with property damage and property insurance? The answer is simple. James Bond causes a lot of property damage. I remember the first time I saw James Bond wreck an Aston Martin; I thought it was a terrible waste of a beautiful car for a film. However, we now know that trashing an Aston Martin is nothing. According to the publication Business Insurance, the latest James Bond film, Spectre, caused almost $1 billion in property damage during filming. The claims for residential building damages alone are expected to be $538.7 million. That, of course, doesn’t take into account the $34.5 million in auto damages which includes the aforementioned Aston Martins as well as Range Rovers and several Jaguar C-X75. It appears James Bond does not just leave a bunch of dead bad guys in his wake, but also the specter (couldn’t resist) of years of insurance litigation.
Check out the trailer for the film; you can easily see how the property damage bill could be so high.
https://youtube.com/watch?v=z4UDNzXD3qA%3Frel%3D0