Wealth Exposed: Insurance Planning for High Net Worth Individuals and Their Advisors

CHAPTER 8

Personal and Family Security Risks

In the aftermath of the calamitous economic and fiscal events over the past several years, the high net worth community should forget about asking “Are we better off today than we were four years ago?” We should instead ponder the more salient question: “Are we safer today than we were four years ago?” The ever-widening wealth gap and income disparity in our country provides some evidence that the wealthy—or 1 percent—are better off financially, at least relative to the 99 percent who, egged on by the class warfare drumbeat of certain politicians and the media, have channeled their discontent into Main Street rage. A perfect storm of prolonged economic distress, political ineptitude, and Wall Street envy has much of the high-net-worth community fearing for the safety of their families.

Recent trends portend an undeniable increase in the threats facing the wealthy, including:

• Continued class warfare assaults on the wealthy by politicians and the media
• Increased incidences of workplace violence by disgruntled employees
• A marked increase in the number of home invasions and burglaries
• The infiltration of family offices by organized crime groups
• A sharp uptick in the number of reported extortion cases
• Greater access to private information via the web, either by hacking or by sophisticated search methods
• An increase in shareholder grievances over corporate governance
• Increased anti-American sentiment overseas
• Increasing terrorist activities ...