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Kidnap & Ransom

Every year thousands of people are kidnapped worldwide and an unquantifiable number receive threats, face extortion, or disappear without explanation. With the degree of risk constantly changing by country, Marsh’s specialized team can help protect you and your people.
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Hostile incidents, including kidnapping and ransom events, are more common than might be expected, and have the potential to be quite damaging to both the individuals involved and any organizations with which they might be associated.

Certain entities are more vulnerable to hostile incidents than the average citizen, including: 

  • Employees and contractors of multinational organizations, especially those working in remote or low-resource areas.
  • Employees working in (or individuals traveling to) areas suffering from political instability and socioeconomic hardships.
  • Employees of domestically-based companies who regularly travel internationally.
  • High-net-worth individuals and families, including celebrities.

Travel to areas of political instability or socioeconomic hardship can leave employees vulnerable to potentially dangerous situations, such as interaction with organized crime enterprises, extortionists and kidnappers, and even terrorist groups.

The trauma associated with hostile incidents is very real to those involved. Such incidents can result in devastating financial losses, compromise a company’s or individual’s reputation, and even unfortunately loss of life.

Marsh offers a comprehensive range of services to respond to threats against your people, brand reputation, and properties, with the goal of ensuring safety while also limiting legal and financial liability.

Related insights

FAQs

Kidnap and ransom insurance policies provide coverage against a broad range of security risks that can happen anywhere and at any time. The risks covered by these polices typically include: kidnap, extortion, detention, hijackings, threats, disappearances, active shooter, emergency political evacuation and repatriation, hostage crises, and violent assaults.

Arguably, the most important aspect of kidnap and ransom coverage is the fact that these policies provide immediate and guaranteed access to experienced response consultants who can assist with all aspects of a crisis.

Marsh’s kidnap and ransom risk specialists can help identify security risks that could challenge your organization and tailor coverage to meet your needs.

All organizations wish to protect their employees, whether at home or abroad. A rapid and effective crisis management response via a kidnap and ransom policy helps demonstrate this commitment.

Multinational corporations and non-governmental organizations with international operations, corporations with overseas contract work, and domestic companies with foreign travel patterns should especially consider this coverage. Organizations with largely domestic risk also should consider the exposure of their workforce and C-suite to extortive crime, depending on their sector and/or the prominence of their business in the public eye.

A kidnap and ransom policy typically provides unlimited coverage for the fees and expenses of response consultants regardless of the duration of a crisis. These policies also tend to provide reimbursement of various financial losses including, but not limited to, ransoms, legal liability and defence costs, scalable personal accident benefits for injury or death, and multiple additional expenses associated with the loss such as medical care, psychological counselling, public relations consulting, and legal advice.

If you have questions about whether kidnap and ransom insurance might be appropriate for you or your company, it is a good idea to meet with an experienced advisor such as Marsh.

Coverage can be tailored as required, but typically companies choose to cover all directors, officers, and employees, including their family members, to ensure that ‘blanket’ cover applies to their whole workforce.

The corporate kidnap and ransom policies that Marsh can help arrange also automatically include coverage for guests, customers, contractors, and consultants under your company’s potential duty of care.