Verbal economy is not a virtue of the insurance industry, according to results from a recent consumer advocacy campaign.
Consumer advocacy group Fairer Finance, based in the UK, has concluded that William Shakespeare retold the story of Julius Caesar’s assassination in about half as many words as it takes UK specialty insurer Staysure Ltd. to issue a travel insurance policy.
Similarly, a 26,052-word homeowner’s policy from Lloyd’s of London ranked in at roughly the same word-count of the Bard’s immortal “Romeo & Juliet”, while a personal auto insurance policy from Endsleigh Insurance Services reads longer than George Orwell’s “Animal Farm.”
The literary comparisons are part of Fairer Finance’s push to increase transparency in the consumer banking and insurance industries, the consumer advocacy group said. Employees at Fairer painstakingly counted the total number of words contained in UK-based banks and insurance companies’ terms and conditions documents only to compare them to word counts of famous literary masterpieces.
Apparently, it is a far, far better thing to meticulously outline exclusions than it is to pen the timeless wonders of the great authors in this day and age. But then again - who's actually reading the fine print?
