The Insurance Game
Many people in the Netherlands still remember the Nationale-Nederlanden Insurance Game, launched in 1973, which taught players about the different insurances in a fun way. However, this concept dates back nearly 40 years earlier when a similar game was handed out to children.
In the late 1930s, De Nederlanden van 1845 published the first '1845 Insurance Game' as a gift for policyholders. The game featured a coloured plate with a hundred squares and a set of rules. Players provided their own dice and pawns, and played a variation of a game of goose through different insurance situations.
By 1963, a more elaborate version of the game was introduced, this time a real board game with cards and pawns in a yellow plastic box with the logo of De Nederlanden van 1845. The game was a combination of goose board and Monopoly where the cashier managed the policies and money. Players could buy different policies, such as the WAP (third-party liability policy), which acted as a free pass. The game simulated a life path with insurance, encountering milestones like their son going to university (square 16), starting a career (square 27) and retiring (square 65). The winner turned 100.
After the merger into Nationale-Nederlanden and the launch of the new logo, a new insurance game was launched in 1973. Designed by Anthon Beeke in a typical 70s style with lots of purple and orange, the updated game retained many features from earlier editions but reflected contemporary insurance offerings. Players encountered products like the Bambino savings plan policy and the TTS (Two-stage increase policy), alongside the well-known Wappertje.
