SERVICES Custom Kidnapping Adventures: We still offer kidnapping adventure scenario's that you can design or we can devise one for you. We are the best in the industry, no one else comes close. We still offer the following kidnap packages: We are available to travel to your location(nationwide) but at your expense. EK’s expertise in kidnapping means that we know what to do to help you lessen and even mitigate the risks of kidnapping. We can evaluate your present security plan and identify its strengths and weaknesses. Depending upon your needs, we can custom design a personal or corporate crisis management plan as well as a personal protection plan that will make a kidnapping less feasible. We can even show you your vulnerabilities by staging a "real" kidnapping to determine how you and/or your security staff would react. You will never be able to totally eliminate the risk of a kidnapping, but we can help you minimize the risk by putting together a plan that is efficient, thorough and cost-effective and that will help mitigate the consequences to both the individual and company. Insurance Companies:
Insurance Companies: Tackling and Minimizing the Risk of Kidnapping
Kidnapping and ransom is a significant risk today to almost every insurance company throughout the world. With terrorist activity on the rise worldwide and kidnapping for ransom becoming "big business", insurance companies are presented with more opportunities to pay out on kidnapping & ransom (K&R) insurance policies. Kidnapping is no longer a random crime. On the contrary, it is a rational, and often predictable, crime with logical causes. It is possible to map it, to understand how and why the kidnappers act, and predict, with an almost perfect degree of accuracy, what the outcome of the kidnapping will be, depending upon the general profile of the kidnapper or kidnappers. Insurance companies cannot afford, especially in the current economic environment, to pay out claims on the ever-rising incidences of kidnapping. Insurance companies need to be proactive in putting into place, systems which work to prevent kidnappings from occurring. Obviously, they cannot do this alone. EK can assist insurance companies in reducing payouts on K&R insurance coverage by providing them with in-depth and practical assessment of each individual client’s potential risks and vulnerability to kidnapping. The challenge and dilemma for many insurance companies is this: "We want to effectively manage kidnapping risks and minimize our financial liabilities, but where are the guidelines? The structures? The tools? and the techniques? The kidnap & ransom insurance industry has grown rapidly over the past 10-15 years, with reported annual growth rates of 15-20% Policies cover their holders against the losses of a kidnap, in much the same way that home insurance covers losses such as burglary and subsidence. As well as the ransom payment, kidnapping related costs might include consultants to advise on how to manage the case, and travel or living costs, the hostage’s wages while they are being held, and any counseling the hostage might need post incident. This can amount to a significant payout on the part of the insurance company in the event of a kidnapping. This does not even include the payment of life insurance benefits if the victim is killed. Needless to say, an insurance company could face paying out millions of dollars for a kidnapping. Historically, companies have looked in-house to handle kidnappings, with the responsibility usually falling on CEOs, or regional managers, or security directors/officers with no previous experience of handling such a high-pressure incident as a kidnap. This is where EK can help. Our experience in conducting kidnappings gives us the expertise to help companies prevent against kidnappings and lower the pay-out risk for insurance companies. Many corporations and people of wealth and position have never had to deal with a kidnapping so they need the experience of people who have. EK is in the enviable position to provide this valuable and much needed service. Since September 11th, personal and personnel security has moved up the ladder of individual and corporate security priorities. While travel, especially overseas travel, has dropped dramatically because of the current economic crisis, the option of not traveling is simply not feasible for many business people or companies. As a result, the risk of kidnapping is still a threat to many corporate executives, celebrities and other high-profile, high-risk people. The risks are even more increased by our current economic problems where kidnapping as a way to make quick money becomes more frequent and bold. EK provides effective security and assessment strategies to tackle kidnapping which are designed to reduce the threat by identifying weaknesses and vulnerabilities both with individuals and businesses. EK’s basic methodology of planning an actual kidnapping of clients of insurance companies identify all the "chinks in the armor" that would allow a successful kidnapping to occur and which would cost insurance companies significant amounts of money in pay-outs. The intelligence that EK would obtain in such a scenario would be invaluable to both the insurance company’s client and the company itself. Included in the information obtained by EK would be security weaknesses and gaps, personal and corporate vulnerabilities, and "hot items" such as consistent and regular patterns of behavior and activity. EK can identify for an insurance company and its clients through its assessment service the level of a kidnapping risk using information such as age, sex, family or business status, and/or presence and influence in the public or private sector. Kidnappers generally take their victims when they are at their most vulnerable and exposed, such as in the car between home and work. Nothing pleases and empowers kidnappers more than when they know the complete and detailed movements of their intended victim. The risk of kidnapping can never be eliminated altogether, which makes it even more important for insurance companies and their clients to have an effective crisis response plan in place that can be activated in a moment’s notice. EK’s expertise in carrying out real kidnappings makes it a real asset to every insurance company that writes kidnap and ransom insurance policies. Because of its activity in this area, EK can develop and implement customized anti-kidnapping and crisis management plans that will help reduce the occurrences of kidnapping and reduce the payment of kidnap and ransom insurance by insurance companies. There are no quick or easy solutions to kidnapping – but there are practical steps that individuals and companies can take to significantly reduce their risks. Prevention and crisis management plans form the bedrock of any strategy for insurance companies providing kidnap & ransom insurance. More than 60% of Fortune 500 companies now carry kidnapping and ransom (K&R) insurance for corporate employees. And the number is growing. K&R insurance generates between $125 million and $150 million a year in premiums worldwide, according to industry sources, and that figure is expected to rise, says one broker. "It’s a growth industry. Premiums for the last five years have been fairly flat, but in the last year, because of an escalation in the number of kidnapping incidents, especially in Colombia, Mexico and Brazil, these premiums have increased." It is for this reason that insurance companies need to be proactive in reducing their exposure to K&R insurance pay-outs. EK can help reduce the risk to insurance companies by assessing risks and mitigating them before a kidnap occurs. EK stands ready to help your company reduce its exposure and risks. Call us now to discuss what EK can do for you. |