Kidnap and Ransom cover from Pulse

By now, most businesses are fully aware of the duty of care they have towards their employees who travel on business. As such, most of them will take out comprehensive corporate travel insurance. However, many businesses neglect to consider kidnap as a major risk to their employees and thus leave themselves open to potential liabilities, including ransom and consultants’ costs.

Many people consider kidnap to be an unlikely risk unless you are travelling somewhere particularly dangerous. However, in the first two months of 2021 there have been 282 incidents of kidnapping worldwide and whilst it is mostly concentrated in areas where you could expect a heightened risk, such as Africa and the Americas, 11% of all incidents occurred in Europe and Asia.

Another key thing for businesses to consider is that many emerging markets are in countries with a heightened risk of kidnapping.

Therefore, it is important to obtain a comprehensive Crisis Response cover, which in partnership with our Protect+ Business Travel insurance will provide the ultimate protections for corporate travellers anywhere in the world. Crisis Response cover is no longer a ‘nice to have’ but is a crucial component of protecting your employees overseas.

What is covered by our Crisis Response product?

Ransom sums insured dependent on company assets but can be anything up to $50m, this includes cover for the ransom that has been surrendered and loss of ransom in transit.

Consultants Costs a key element of reaching a positive outcome in the event of a kidnapping is to have the best advisors with experience in negotiating and contacts in various countries around the world who can assist with extricating the victim. They can also assist with managing the PR implications of the situation.

Legal Liability where an insured persons brings a lawsuit against the Assured following kidnap, detention or hostage crisis.

Personal Accident cover for death or disablement as a result of a kidnapping, detention or extortion.

Additional Expenses including negotiator fees; PR consultants; interpreters; additional travel and accommodation costs; loss of salary for the victim and an employee who leaves their employment in order to assist in the negotiations for the release of the victim; costs of borrowing on loans raised to meet the ransom; temporary security measures; childcare costs and Key Person expenses.

There are also optional add-ons available such as Express Kidnap, Emergency Political Repatriation, Child Abduction and Workplace Violence and Assault.

We can also provide coverage for high-net-worth individuals and their families, these are often taken out when the whole family is living on location in a country or region with a heightened kidnap risk, or for example when a child of a high-net-worth individual goes on a gap year trip.

At Pulse we have experience in underwriting Kidnap & Ransom and Travel insurance covers for a variety of industries in several different regions, including:

  • A film crew interviewing cartel members or war lords in Colombia and Afghanistan.
  • A company executive and his family in South America.
  • A Christian charity operating worldwide.
  • A legal NGO working with the UK Foreign Office.
  • Celebrities and high net worth individuals.

Our capacity is provided by Travelers Syndicate 5000 who have been at the forefront of Kidnap & Ransom insurance for over 30 years. Through their response providers, Constellis, we look to provide specialist expertise in ensuring you get the right advice when incidents occur.

We can tailor policies to your client’s needs, including the sums insured a policy periods ranging from one day to up to three years.

For more information or to request a quote please contact:

Ben Pailthorpe
Senior Underwriter
[email protected]
07572 397849