Can’t stop thinking about insurance? New album will get you through holidays [South Florida Sun-Sentinel]

If you’re unlike most Floridians, you’re finding yourself this current holiday season craving even more news and discussion about insurance.

We’ve been served an all-you-can-choke-on buffet of insurance coverage throughout the year:

Sticker shock at renewal time. Endless stories about rising premiums and bankrupt insurance companies. Not one, but two special legislative sessions to binge on the Florida Channel.

If you are one of the very few folks suffering insurance-news withdrawal because family and friends expect you to focus on holiday season meals, parties and other such gaiety, here’s something that can get you through these trying times:

The Insurance Journal, a trade website, has dropped the first-ever (as far as it knows) album of insurance-oriented holiday carols. Now you can enjoy holiday season music while still getting your fix of insurance chatter.

Called “Have A Claims Free New Year,” the album was produced by the website’s educational arm, Academy of Insurance, and written by George Jack, a customer success manager at the academy who also hosts the academy’s weekly webinars and voices audio versions of its textbooks.

The album — available on Spotify, iTunes, Amazon Music, TikTok, Pandora and YouTube — features nine traditional Christmas tunes plus the New Years Eve classic Auld Lang Syne, but revamped with new insurance-focused titles and lyrics.

You get “We Wish You a Book of Business.” Targeted at insurance agents and companies, it goes, “We wish you a book of business, we wish you a book of business, a huge new book of business and a claims-free New Year.”

Then there’s “Bundle Your Housetop,” which is aimed at insurance consumers with lyrics that include, “Bundle your Housetop, house and car, coverage that you get will go quite far. Ho ho ho, two for one, ho ho ho, bundling’s fun.”

And who can’t resist, “O Property O Casualty, you help us with disruptions / to businesses that are caused by / defects in construction.”

The first single, “A Drone Hit A Stranger,” is a cautionary tale meant to convince purchasers of unwieldy flying toys that they should purchase liability coverage:

“A drone hit a stranger, a drone flown by me. I thought, ‘I have insurance, I must be home free.’ Then I saw I had gaps in my coverage, not thrilled. On the hook for that dear stranger’s medical bills.”

The song evolved out of lessons taught in the academy’s webinars, Jack said in an interview. “Not that anyone having an accident with a drone is a joke, but we tried to make it humorous.”

The album was conceived both to to expose consumers to the mechanics of how insurance works and to entertain insurance insiders familiar with the songs’ industry-specific lyrics and topics.

It was meant to capture the spirit of playful jingles like “Nationwide is on your side” and the dry humor of Progressive’s Flo character.

“It’s a love letter, a holiday card, a ‘This is for you, insurance industry,’ kind-of-a-thing,” Jack said.

As for its appeal to those less-familiar with insurance, Jack said he knew he nailed it when his 10-year-old daughter walked around singing lyrics from “O Property O Casualty.”

The album was made possible by the success of the Academy’s first-ever children’s book, Popsicle Insurance — An Insurance Story for Children, about young hero Drexler’s discovery that learning about insurance can be fun, he said.

Jack collaborated on the album with three musicians — David Wilson and Randy Hansen of Manchester, New Hampshire, and composer/arranger Brent Baldwin of Austin, Texas.

Like an adjuster, academy director Patrick Wraight scoured the songs for accuracy. “Patrick is the educational guru,” Jack said. “I ran all the lyrics by him. Nothing is incorrect.”

Several Florida insurance experts asked to review the album voiced as much enthusiasm as they could muster.

Mark Friedlander, corporate communications director for the industry-funded Insurance Information Institute, gushed, “This is a very creative way to explain the benefits of common personal and commercial insurance coverages. They highlight valuable information for consumers.”

Stacey Giulianti, chief legal officer at Boca Raton-based Florida Peninsula Insurance Company, raved, “Well written and funny, but they shouldn’t quit their day job.”

And Paul Handerhan, president of the Fort Lauderdale-based watchdog group, Federal Association for Insurance Reform, acclaimed, “It’s cute.”

Critical reactions to the album have been so positive so far, Jack said, that a sequel has been green-lit for next Christmas season.

It promises to be more fun than a three-hour visit with a claims adjuster.

Ron Hurtibise covers business and consumer issues for the South Florida Sun Sentinel. He can be reached by phone at 954-356-4071, on Twitter @ronhurtibise or by email at [email protected].

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