Kidnap & Ransom

Summary of coverage

Our products are critically important in fulfilling a company’s duty of care and legal liability responsibility to their employees. This is especially important when they are operating in high risk and/or developing environments.

Our Kidnap & Ransom policies provide worldwide coverage for perils including extortion; detention; hijacking; virtual kidnapping and express kidnapping. Benefits include not only ransom, but also legal liability, surrendered personal belongings, and additional expenses, such as medical expenses and lost salary. It is important for our clients to know that the fees and expenses of our response firm are unlimited no matter the duration of the incident or covered event.

Claims scenarios

THREAT

A bank manager receives a number of threatening e-mails from a former employee who recently was dismissed.

EXTORTION

A Country Manager of an NGO, an El Salvador citizen, receives a series of telephone calls at his home and on his cell phone from an unknown caller who threatens to kidnap a member of his family, if he does not pay a specified amount of money.

VIRTUAL KIDNAP

An insured’s 18-year-old daughter answers a call from an individual stating that he has kidnapped her father. The caller demands cash and valuables as ransom. Fearing for her father’s life, the daughter follows the caller’s instructions, gathers cash and valuables from around the house, and drops the bag of “ransom” outside of a nearby church as instructed by the caller. The daughter later learns that her father was safe and not in any danger.

DISAPPEARANCE

A policyholder is concerned for the safety of his adult daughter who is visiting Cancun, Mexico, with her boyfriend, to attend a series of annual musical events and concerts. He receives a series of strange and concerning communications from his daughter and her boyfriend. The last text messages from his daughter included the word “Help” and “911”. Subsequently, he did not hear from his daughter for two days.