Kidnap and Ransom Awareness, Risk Management and Coverage - Featuring Fritz Barjon of Highland House USA Artwork

Private Client Risk & Resilience

Join Kurt Thoennessen, CAPI to learn about the risks that successful individuals and families face today. He will discuss risk management strategies to prevent losses and ideas to help you be more resilient to losses when they occur. He will explore everything from the risks to property, such as homes, art and yachts, to how to become more resilient in the face of loss by having the right insurance coverage in place. Episodes will feature expert knowledge from subject matter experts and/or insights from Kurt's personal experience as a risk manager for successful individuals and families.

All Episodes

Private Client Risk & Resilience

Kidnap and Ransom Awareness, Risk Management and Coverage - Featuring Fritz Barjon of Highland House USA

March 15, 2021 • Kurt Thoennessen, CAPI • Episode 10

Introduction - Fritz Barjon of Highland House USA - 3:55
Kidnap and Ransom Insurance as a Contract Requirement - 6:40
Step 1 after a Kidnapping - 10:35
Fritz Shares a Personal Story Involving Kidnapping - 13:00
What is a Virtual Kidnapping? - 15:27
COVID19's Impact on Kidnapping - 16:38
Fritz Shares Another Personal Story Involving Kidnapping - 17:55
How to Prepare for Kidnapping - 20:40
(Websites mentioned: Travel.state.gov, https://www.controlrisks.com/, https://thinkhri.com/, https://www.s-rminform.com/)
What is an Express Kidnapping? - 21:45
The Value of an Insurance Broker - 23:00
Factors that Elevate Your Risk - 24:00
Statistics - 28:00
Who Should Have Kidnap and Ransom Coverage? - 29:00
Example: Lady Gaga's Dogs Being Kidnapped - 31:12
Financial and Human Capital - 33:50
How To Purchase a K&R Policy? 35:00
Difference Between a K&R Policy and Coverage Through an Endorsed Home or Travel Policy - 36:45
Final Thoughts From Fritz - 41:26
How to Contact Fritz - 46:50

Our guest for this episode was Fritz Barjon of Highland House USA. Thank you for sharing your thoughts and expertise with us Fritz!
Fritz@highlandhouseusa.com
www.highlandhouseusa.com

Click the link below to complete a short form to obtain a Kidnap and Ransom insurance proposal from Kurt and Fritz.

Kidnap and Ransom Insurance Proposal Form

Kurt Thoennessen: 0:05

Welcome to the private client risk and resilience podcast. My name is Kurt Thoennessen and I'm a personal risk advisor at Ericson insurance advisors. This show will provide you insights and education about the unique risks in the private client space. my goal is to help you be better protected from disaster by making you more aware of risk and how you can manage it. So let's jp right in. So today our topic is kidnap and ransom insurance and more broadly than that we're going to dive into just the the the risk of Kidnapping Today and how it's changed over the years and what families and individuals really need to be aware of when it comes to this exposure.. when we think about this exposure there's a lot of fear associated with it. There's a lot of scary stories out there that we've heard and we probably even have something close to home that has happened in our lives or in someone who is close to us related to kidnapping that caused that that fear that sense of being afraid for a family member. And I know for me personally I've been fortunate to not have too many of them but there was a situation a long time ago where I was at an amusement park with my children and one of them disappeared at one point while we were there. And it was probably about I want to say five or 10 minutes that we were just freaking out and searching all over the park for her. And ultimately she was smart and she found somebody and she was very young at that point. she was right around five or six years old and she found a lifeguard in the swimming area and told the lifeguard that she was looking for somebody and the lifeguard helped her find us. but that period from when she disappeared to the period when we found her was very traatic it was very scary. and so that's what I wanted to dive in today and I'm really excited that we have Fritz Barjon here today with us. He is an expert in Kidnap and Ransom insurance and he's been working in this industry in this particular niche for many years in several different roles. I'm going to ask him to share a little bit about that with us in a minute. but before I do that as a risk advisor my clients look to me for advice they look to me to share with them the things that they need to be thinking about to protect them and their families. And honestly over the last 15 years kidnapping and kidnap and ransom insurance specifically has not come up that often. And I think that needs to change. I think that this particular topic is something that people need to be aware of something that people need to think about when they do their insurance reviews. They think about ris k fo r their family and themselves kidnap and ransom insurance should be something that is part of that discussion. And so Fritz I really am grateful to you for taking the time out of your schedule to have this conversation. And we' d like to just have you tell us a little bit about you first and get to know you a little bit. how did you get into this niche? where did you start? How did you become the managing partner at Highland house USA?

Fritz Barjon: 3:57

number. Well Kurt first of all thanks for having me it's a pleasure to be with you today and talk about kidnap and ransom a subject that many of us has probably heard of on TV or in movies or in Hollywood but never really understood that there's actually insurance coverage out there fo r f or this type of event. So I'm excited to talk about it and share some stories with you and my background with your audience. I started in this in i ns urance many years ago with AIG working out of New York. I worked in different areas within the organization be it direc to rs and officers or budgeting and finance or even it at one point. And the person I reported into at the time got a promotion and was heading up a different group within AIG called the specia lty risk group. And these were specialty products that were written specifically toward or geared towards certain clients. And one of the products that fell within that tower was kidnap and ransom very little known product small product at the time. but it was it was definitely of interest to me and I picked it up fairly quickly. and a few years after that I ended up being promoted myself and started to run the kidnap and ransom unit for AIG fo r a ll of North America. so it was a product that we mainly targeted fortune 500 companies executives and directors that traveled overseas or if you are large mu lti national and you had operations and employees overseas those were the types of clients we were going after. it evolved obviously into NGOs non-government organizations missionary groups government especially during the war that were traveling over to Iraq and needed that that type of insurance to fulfill a contract. so it it evolved quite a bit in my time at AIG about two years ago when I left AIG I decided to form a partnership with a broker friend of mine to form a company called Highland house which is a an insurance brok e rage firm that specializes in this type of insurance. So when I was with AIG I was on the carrier side and now I'm on the broker side. So I'm kind of like the intermediary between the end client and the insurance carrier.

Kurt Thoennessen: 6:40

i t's really interesting career trajectory. And so when you're talking to a fortune 500 company and you mentioned that sometimes this particular insurance is a requirement for a contract that they're trying to get. Can you tell us a little bit about that requirement and where that fits into that conversation?

Fritz Barjon: 7:04

number the number one thing that we talked to with organizations is their duty of care liability for their employees. So if you're a large multinational and you win a contract obviously with the government and you're sending contractors overseas as part of this contract there's a bidding process and then there's t he actual contract. So we t alk to organizations about looking out and securing their employees and a lot of the times the contracts mandate that they have some sort of security type insurance in place. And so what you never want to be in a position as an organization of sending an employee overseas that gets i n a difficult or a bad situation in a dangerous country and has no form of safety or having any information in order to get them out of that situation or any resources. we've seen some organizations in the industry who don't carry this type of insurance be sued by the employee that was a victim of the ki dnapping event or by their family. And these lawsuits tend to settle for several million dollars. In addition to that the company suffers the reputational damage of having their employees out there without any security training without any security recourse or any way to bring them home safely. So that can damage their reputation. And if they're a public company obviously their stock price. so we we talk about that with organizations all around the world to co v erages wo rldwide. It's not specific to a certain industry or a particular area of the world so companies understand and once you have that duty of care conversation with them they understand.

Kurt Thoennessen: 8:56

That's really important. and I think you said something there that really stuck with me is that there's the training and t he the security additional resources that these people who are traveling abroad would need in the event of this type of kidnapping happening. And so it's something that resonates with me because I have clients that call me after a loss and they say Kurt a pi pe just burst in my house and there's water flowing down through the ceiling. What do I do? A lot of people just don't know what the first step is or don't know what to do when they're experiencing loss. They're not prepared for it. people don't spend their lives thinking okay I need to do this after such and such loss happens. I think it's really important to note that being prepared and knowing what to do and even if you don't know personally what to do having the resource to go to to get that information. My clients like working with me cause they're l ike K urt I got a water loss. What do I do? Oh you just call this risk mitigation company you get the dehumidifier in the basement and you start doing this and that and the other thing. And that's great. And they're like okay I got my plan. I'm going to execute. So with a kidnapping t hough I don't even know what that plan looks like. What does that response look like when someone is kidnapped from a resource standpoint or from just what's the first thing they do?

Fritz Barjon: 10:40

number well we saw after nine 11 for example a lot of companies scrambled to formulate a business continuity plan. but the plan mainly focused on moving people and infrastructure around in the event that they had another catastrophic event and they'd be able to get back up and running fairly quickly. What we saw though was that they didn't have a plan for what would happen if th eir e mployees were traveling overseas. and there was an uprising like the Arab spring that we saw back in 2011 or or or some major events that hap pened si nce then we saw that they were not as prepared with what to do. They may have had security personnel at home office or regional security personnel but those people were more concerned with some of the internal things that were happening and not so much as well versed as some of the external factors whether it be political crime et cetera. So we found that a lot of organizations were very prepared. And once we had the conversation with them and said the policy not only covers the response which we'll get into but it also does a lot of preventative work with you. It helps you formulate a crisis plan which is very different from a business continuity plan and it focuses on your people and where they are. And so people were very surprised that the policy actually came along with that feature. And that is a feature of the policy. That's drawn up by these security professionals who have been in the industry for a number of years. Many of them are former intelligence FBI CIA British intelligence guys that have the background in law enforcement. and they know the lay of the land in th e areas that they operate and th ey know all of the criminal organizations and their modus operandi. So those are the people in my estimation in my opinion rather that are the most important asp ect of the policy not just the paper that it's written on. Obviously it's going to indemnify you and make you whole from a financial perspective but it's really the people and the expertise that the policy brings along with it that are goi ng to ma ke sure that you get your employees or your loved ones back home safely.

Kurt Thoennessen: 12:56

A nd I think that is one of the most important things. It's the preparation ahead of time that goes into preparing a company or an individual or family for this type of situation. Now I wanted to kno w ki nd of playing off of this topic before this conversation we were talking and you were kind enough to share with me some personal experiences that you went through where you were able to in the moment be that resource which was very fortunate. do you mind sharing those stories or one on e of those stories or two i f w e h ave time with us.

Fritz Barjon: 13:39

number sure. so interestingly enough I was on a trip in Mexico where I spent a lot of time meeting with clients and prospective clients. And I a n d I was meeting with at the time of prospective client for lunch. and she received a phone call and it was from a number she didn't recognize and she answered the phone and it was a gent leman on the other end of the line. speaking in very serious terms to her stating that they had kidnapped her daughter who was living in Miami at the time. And they advised her that they were going to harm her daughter if she did no t w ire them certain amount of funds within a certain amount of time. obviously she was frantic. I happene d to be there and nex t t o her she put it on speaker phone a nd I was listening in on the call. and they told her of course all the usual things we know her they described thei r car her license plate her addr ess whe re she live d wha t she looked like. and and it was pretty scary for the person I was meeting with. they told her not to hang up the phone and they told her to initiate the wire. All of this was going on while I was listening. And I said to her in a whisper tone give me your daughter's cell phone number. And when she did that I went to the next table over and phones her d aughter on my cell phone. And immediately I reached her daughter. I explained to her who I was and what was going on. And she obviously confirmed that she was fine and she wa s shopping out in Miami and she was okay. And so I came back to the table and I immediately hung up the phone. and this type of crime happens all the time. an d i t's what you call a virtual kidnapping where the perpetrators don't actually have the victim in their physical control but they have enough information about the victim to scare their loved one into thinking that they have that person. And they are very successful with this crime because it's a crime that elicits emotion. it's it's done very quickly. they don't let you get off the phone. And so the average citizen who doesn't know anything about this they're more apt to pay than not. And so that's why it's a success. So that was an example of something real life situation happened right in front of me of a virtual kidnapping.

Kurt Thoennessen: 16:11

Wow. I can't imagine going through that situation and being on the other end of that phone. and it's it's k ind o f interesting that they call it a virtual kidnapping right. C ause everything today it's all virtual and with COVID 19 we're all virtual we'r e wor king from home we're doing zoom calls. so the criminals are figuring are f igu ring out a way to continue their business in this environment as well. I mean do you think COVID 19 is playing a role in in this type of situation?

Fritz Barjon: 16:47

Oh absolutely. without a doubt due to COVID we've seen kidnappings go up quite significantly as well as the extortion from virtual kidnapping. So the kidnappings have gone up just bec ause cr ime in general has gone up and it's a source of income for these organizations. especially the cartels whose operations have been curtailed because the border has been closed. so they're trying to find other ways to finance their activities and kidnapping has been one of them. So that's number one. number two virtual kidnappings have skyrocket because again people are home. the kidnappers know that they can go through a list of phon e numbers and just dial on demand. And because they can't be out as much their tr avel restrictions and things of that nature they've switched their operations to this type of virtual or remote crime. A nd th ey're just going through a list of numbers and calling people until they get someone who will send them the money. And we've seen quite a bit of that and not just in other parts of the world but actually here in the U S it happens quite a bit. I had a situation even personally with my mother and my sister where my mother received a call late at night and stated the person on the other end stated that my sister had been in an accident and she had caused the accident and it was her fault and they were going to hold her or d et ain her unless my mother paid them money to let her go. And my mom obviously knowing the business that I'm in called me and said what do I do? And so immediately I did the same thing called my sister and she was asleep at home. so those are the types of things that happe ned righ t here in the U S where people are actually paying because they don't know any better. And they're very afraid. It's a very frightening and emotional situation that happens very quickly. So you see that happen quite a bit here as well.

Kurt Thoennessen: 18:48

Well I can imagine if I were put in that situation and not knowing what to do not knowing that there's things called virtual kidnappings that I would just I would panic. And the the relief to that panic is to pay the bill to pay the money and hope that p ray that the other side lives up to their end of the bargain. so I mean I'm so glad that your sister is okay and everybody's okay in these situations. but there is a certain trauma that's left after that event as well. so number. Thank you for sharing that. And along with the virtu al kidnappings and you mentioned that the the rate of these types of crimes is increasing it's increasing in the United States. it's very similar like cyber insurance cyber threat and c yber c r ime is increasing and ransomware ra nsomware y ou still install ransomware in the compute r. If you pay a ransom you get the money. so these criminals are figuring out these these ways to get at people's heart strings to get at what's import an t to them and to extract money from them in these criminal ways.

Fritz Barjon: 20:09

Unfortunately the criminals do their homework as well and their due diligence and they figured out ways in this economy to to continue their operations and j ust sustain it. And one of those things i s I virtual kidnapping or extortion wh ich i s o n the ri se.

Kurt Thoennessen: 20:26

number. And so the question t hat that is in my mind i s well awareness is great to to be aware of these things so that we can know okay maybe this is a virtual kidnapping I'm going through. And so hang up the phone or call my loved one and make sure they're okay what are the wh a t ar e there other things that people can do to prepare and plan to protect themselves from this possible situation that of?

Fritz Barjon: 20:53

number. I mean the there a re some sites out there that offer information especially if you're traveling travel.state.gov is a good one that gives you advisories. And it gives you country reports about different countries the level of crime if there's some political unrest going on areas to be weary of and that kind of thing. the organizations I work with the consultant organizations from a security standpoint have grea t re sources. SRM is one for example control risks HRI is another one SPS. These are all security consultancy firms that produce white papers and reports on travel safety things to be aware of crimes and trends. For example virtual kidnapping or express kidnapping is another trend that we see quite a bit where an individual is taken at an ATM for example and they're forced to drain their bank account daily limit. And then they're held for a few hours until the next day when that limit refreshes. And then they're taken back to the ATM and take out all of their money for that day as well. And then they're let go. It's called an express kidnapping because it typically happens under 24 hours. and there's no demand of a third party for a ransom that's quite prevalent in Latin America Venezuela and Mexico but it h appens somewhat here in the U S as well. So those kinds of things are helpful training obviously. And the policy in essence is a great tool to have hopefully you'll never have to use it on the response side but the prevention capabilities or ch aracteristics that the policy affords are quite numerous and very valuable. they do a lot of security training. they do simulations tabletop exercises for large organizations things of that nature. the y're av ailable 24 seven for advice. If you have a trip coming up for example to an unknown part of the world you can call into one of these services and they'll give you advice. indi viduals suc h as myself a broker are great resources for information that we can give to clients about extortion risks their profile on the internet or social media things to be wary of in terms of like these calls that are coming into th e U S from other countries. so there are lots of resources out there. my job obviously is to help educate and raise awareness on some of those things.

Kurt Thoennessen: 23:38

Great. And I think that that's really important to note is just having that part o f the contract that is there to help train and t o help prepare you i s is really important. And like you said the broker is extremely important in this conversation as well. so when people are thinking about this and they're thinking about their risk profile cau se I talk about risk profile with clients relative to other lines of business personal umbrella for example clients ask what what's the right limit for me to purchase for umbrella insurance. And then we say well what's your risk profile? What are the risks that that you have for potentially being sued for a large amount of money because you cau se someone bodily injury or property damage and in that world the the risks are how you ha ve multiple properties you maybe hav e a pool you have a trampoline maybe you have a dog that has maybe a dangerous dog breed or maybe you do a lot of tra vel. So when it comes to kidnap exposure kidnap risk what are some of the the things that people should look at as far as what would elevate their risk profile for this type of exposure?

Fritz Barjon: 24:58

number. Great question. I mean it's all about r isk right? So it's very similar in that we look at profiles as well albeit a slightly different characteristics. So the first thing we'll look at is who are we insuring? So on the high net worth or private side we look at who is this person and what is their profile right. Are we talking about a banker who has similar a fairly quiet profile or are we talking about an entertainer that has a large profile right? we look at the industry that they're in in an organization obviously if you're in the oil and gas industry you probably have a higher profile higher risk NGOs traveling to different countries on missions. They have a higher risk. So we look a t th at type of profile versus a lower profile a retai l organization just sending sales to peop le in country. we look at net worth o r revenue. if you have a high revenue you yo u probably have a higher profile and you probably need higher limits to cover your duty of care. same thing if you're a high income earner or a private individual we look at that net worth to determine what's the appropriate limit for you as well. We also look at travel destinations. Where do you travel to when you do travel? Are you traveling to a fai r ly safe areas on business trips or a re you going to dangerous areas that we deemed dange rous as a five profile country for example do you have homes in other countries that you traveled to? Wha t countries what's the security around the homes who are your staff in those countries? We look at you your staff as well whether they be drivers nannies housekeepers those are all kinds of things. We kind of formulate this risk profile. And then we determined a limit that's appropriate. whether it be 1 million if you have a fairly low net worth or revenue size lo w p r ofile o r it could go up to 50 million if you have a fairly high revenue size an d a high net worth and then we determine a price by working with the underwriters on what that price should be and then the length of time whether it's a o n e-year p olicy or a multi-year policy. So those are the kinds of risk factors that we look at when we're looking at individuals and corporations for this type of insurance.

Kurt Thoennessen: 27:29

It's very similar to our conversations on the umbrella side similar things that we look at where do you travel? Do you have domestic employees so on and so forth? So I think the the due diligence there is really important especially when it comes to determining the limit exactly. when I think about insurance and this is something that I talk about with clients is that we're insurin g for th e catastrophic loss. we're insuring for the loss that we can't afford to pay ourselves. We're also purchasing services that are going to h elp u s t hrough that situation and kidnapping I think I found a statistic online. It was there's 15000 or so kidnaps per year but it's a very difficult number to come out with.

Fritz Barjon: 28:27

well I could say in terms of the numbers the numbers are at least three to four times higher than than that 15000 number. And it's because as you mentioned a lot of this goes unreported. for fear of retribution as an example you don't want to go in certain countries to law enforcement who may or may not be complicit and say I've been kidnapped by this organization beca use tha t could come back on you again. So a lot of people are fearful of reporting kidnap ping. So t he ir autho rities especially in other parts of the world outside of the U S so t h at's number one but it happens a lot more than the reports say they do from an organizational standpoint I think every organization that has some sort of travel or foreign or international operations should have this type of insurance and it's not just for the duty of care but it's also the financial and reputational implications that could occur should an event happen. as I mentioned earlier with the security consultants that come along with this policy each insurance company retains a security consultancy firm to do this type of so it's very difficult for the average citizen or the organization that doesn't have this type of insurance to pick up the phone and start working with one of these organizations without a p re-existing relationship. So that's very important to know from an individual side or a family side yo u l ook at your profile and your family and that's the risk. Do y ou have kids that travel abroad for school or on sabbaticals or vacations spring breaks things of that nature what's their social media profile. Are they putting or showing their wealth on social media on a constant basis? Someone's watching that. I guarantee you and you're increasing your risk level for a kidnapping type of event. it's not just kidnap it's also extortion. a kidnapping is actually physically taking t hem in order to put in a ransom demand for their release. And extortion is really a negotiation. And it's extorting that individual either p romising not to kill or injure them or release some sensitive information which could be pictures text messages or things of that nature that could put you in a fairly compromising situation if it's released. So the only the common factor between the two is the ransom demand between an extortion and a k i dnap. So if you're a h igh net worth person or you have a certain profile you should consider these things for your family as well as yourself. a great example of something the other day that happens in news was th e example with lady Gaga for example obviously everyone knows who lady Gaga is. She's got a tremendously high profile but her two dogs were were kidnapped in West Hollywood. the kidnap and ransom policy actually has a clause in there if you endorse it onto there to include pets. So in that situation it had the the perpetrators or the kidnappers come back to lady Gag a Go d an d said Hey we want a million dollars in order to return your pets. and had the policy been endorsed for her pet s. T he policy would have covered the pets and indemnify her for the ransom they would have handled the neg otiation and any of the ancillary expenses associated with that. We mentioned trauma earlier. I'm sure it was a traumatic event for her and the dog Walker. So they would be afforded expenses for counseling as part of the policy. So a lot of people don't know that. So I would counsel people to look at their profile what matters to them what's important. And then to det er m ine and g o from there another Oh one m ore thing I wanted to mention on that before moving off the policy also covers fees towards a reward. So in that instance she had put up a$500,00 0 reward for any information. No questions asked to return the two dogs. So those fees had she had the appropriate limits of course would have covered the reward fees. So that's an interesting part of the policy as well.

Kurt Thoennessen: 32:54

Oh absolutely. So I mean it would have been very helpful and I don't know if there was coverage in place for it or not. but certainly would help on the financial side as well as like you said on the compassion side the counseling afterwards these events are extremely traumatic for anyone to go through. And so what I'm hearing and I'm listening to you say It's this policy yes. It will provide some financial support given the limits but much more important are the resources that it provides the crisis management the counseling afterwards it sounds like the people who put this policy together really understand what's going on and what happens in duri ng a kidnap and ransom and the money's import ant. but there's all these other things that are really important as well.

Fritz Barjon: 33:45

we tell our clients all the time we're not just looking out for their financial capital we're looking out for their human capital be cause t his is a very difficult type of risk and crime and it ef f ects mo re than their bank account or their stock price. It affects people. So the services that come along with the policy in my opinion the security tha t th e rehabilitation the the medical expenses the psychiatric costs all of that my opinion is re al ly what separates the policy and what makes it a value.

Kurt Thoennessen: 34:26

No absolutely. I mean anybody who's gone through a traumatic experience some people can bounce back very quickly and some people it takes a long long time and all of those resources and support services are what makes give people that ability to come back and to be th em selves again. And that's so so critically important for the corporations to have their their e xecut ives back and for families to have their family members back to who they were. so that's a really good point. so just a kind of s imple question I guess on this how simple or how easy is it to get this type of policy in place? I mean some policies there's a lot of underwriting involved and big applications and stuff like that and there's a lot of costs associa ted w ith it. how simple is it to get this type of policy in place?

Fritz Barjon: 35:23

it's really fairly simple. number one is to go through an insurance broker that handles this type of insurance or ha s the expertise you want to make sure that insurance broker is with fairly large insurance carrier companies that have the good rating for M ood y's and agencies like that and they' re back ed well financially. but in terms of the application process it's very simple. It's six or seven questions that we focus on. Who are you where do you live? Where do you travel? do you have other homes and oth er countries your net worth or revenue size and then have you ever been a victim of a threat or it can happen i n the p as t like a prior claim which is typical in any insurance and then that's it from just those five or six pieces of information we're able to develop a quote and provide different options to the client and walk them through the options and the limits from each of the carriers that we source quotations from. And then it's fairly easy after that the policy is usually paid prepaid upfront. once it's paid the client has that policy for the next 12 months it's enforced. And for any particular reason should they claim they could have a numbe r of claims depending on if it's written on an occurrence basis obviously. and it's it's fairly ea sy a t that point to secure the coverage.

Kurt Thoennessen: 36:49

Great. Then one one question I have I had noticed in some homeowners policies if they do include kidnap and kidnap expenses coverage. and so I think some of the limits I've seen are a hundred thousand$50000 things like that. What should people know about the difference between what's provided by their ho meowners i nsurance versus what's provided by an actual kidnap and ransom policy?

Fritz Barjon: 37:15

what I see is a lot of companies will endorse on a ho meowner's p olicy or a business travel accident policy with some level of kidnap and ransom insurance coverage. Typically the limits are a lot lower for example and in some instances they only cover expenses and not the ransom. So you have to be very careful when purchasing an add on or an endorsement to another policy. And that should be the job of your broker to go through that policy with a fine tooth comb and make sure that you're adequately covered on that policy. My recommendation is to go the sta ndalone ro ute and to purchase a standalone policy where you have much broader terms and conditions tha t yo u have higher limits. and then you have the control obviously of that policy to make the decisions whereas sometimes on an extended policy or an endorsed policy you're going through an underwriter that may not have oversight over that particular product that they endorsed. And that just creates another step to go to another underwriting unit within that organization to get approval for claims and things of that nature so that the policy the standalone policies in my opinion for the value of the policy it's very inexpensive. So I would counsel my clients to get the standa lone polic y.

Kurt Thoennessen: 38:42

Well I mean from my perspective and this exposure today kidnap exposure I think we're doing better than we have in the past as far as a a community in terms of the awareness. we have Amber alerts now that are put out when there's a situation that people need to be aware of and that's all over the billboards and the news and the radio and people can be aware of i t. I' ve even experienced it where we have a Facebook group in our town and someone posted in the Facebook group Hey here's something that we saw the other day that was very concerning. It was a such a nd such vehicle that was driving slowly behind a group of people in town. and so just be on the lookout. and so there are those types of things that people are letting their friends and neighbors know about through social media through other avenues. that awareness although scary my wife would tell me about these things ca use s he sees it on Facebook an d a nd I'll listen and I'll sa y a nd it's scary but it's something that we can then share with our children and tell them be aware of what's going on. and so I think that that's very good. And that's why I wanted to have this conversation with you too b eca use as I said it wasn't something that I talked about with clients at all unless they brought it up or it was a very rare situation. but I think it is a risk it's an exposure that's out there. It's something that I want my clients to be prepared for. And and so I really appreciate you coming on today and sharing your knowledge with us and experience and as we finish up this conversation I'll I'll let you finish up and and share so me final thoughts. before I have m y my fun question at the end. but I just really appreciate you taking the time and sharing your knowledge. And an d I want everybody on the call to know that you and I work to geth er as far as sharing business because I recognize that this is a specialty niche and this is something that I want my clients to be aware of. And so whenever I have a client who is in need of this type of insurance I I send them t o you because I know they're going to be best taken care of that way. And you have access to those markets which I don't have. and so that's something that I did want to share b ut a s w e finish up here i s ther e anything else that you wanted to share that you think is important that we haven't shared already for people to know?

Fritz Barjon: 41:29

Well number I think one of my when it comes to this i s is really raising awareness and education. I feel a lot of people as I mentioned at the beginning of this just aren't aware that something like this exists and think it's only for the very rich or or the large organization or maybe the high profile entertainer or a c e lebrity. And what I would say is it's really not the world has changed. it's actually harder to kidnap or get to a high net worth high profile person because of all of the security apparatus they have around. So criminals are looking at that mid net worth some form of wealth that you're showing whether it's a car or a home or a watch. So they're keying in on some other things. So you may not think you're a target when you actually are. So I would consider that I would also counsel people to just remember as I mentioned earlier about the human capital obviously we want our loved ones to be well taken care of and safe. but also as as a high net worth or a h ead of household you should be thinking about what if something happened to you in terms of your business right? If you're kidnapped you're ta ken f or a long period of time who's running the business what are the financial implications of that? Are you able to execute your stock trades for example are you able to conduct business ongoing or do you have to have a shutdown period because of that? those are things you should really consider. if you're extorted for some sensitive information that someone was able to get out there what kind of damage would that do to your reputation if that got out there or to your children? What if they're being cyber bullied and there's some information about them out there that's affecting their day to day wouldn't you want a professional to handle that in the event that that happens. so I would say to broaden your thought process about this product it's a very niche product. However it covers a lot of different things under a lot of different scenarios. so I would definitely say to raise the awareness people can go to our website Highland house usa.com to learn more about the produ cts and to gain some information. there are several resources out there that I mentioned for example travel.state.gov that gives some great information. And then the consultancy firms that provide travel advisories and white papers on the subject.

Kurt Thoennessen: 44:08

Excellent. Thank you so much for that. And before we close out the the episode I one thing I was thinking about before this is I'd like to add ended on a light note. So I wanted to share one of the movies I watched recently with my children was I just saw it for free on Amazon. And it was that I watched when I was a kid and I enjoyed it. My kids are into soccer so it's called lady bugs with Rodney Dangerfield. I had this vision of this movie that was something totally different than what it is. it was a ve ry fun ny movie but a little not appropriate for my kid's age b ut an yway one of my favorite movies what is one of your favorite movies Fritz and I know I'm putting you on the spot here but what's one of your favorite movies

Fritz Barjon: 45:04

Actually i t's it's very close to home in terms of what I do it's captain Phillips which was a great movie with Tom Hanks in it. And it talked about piracy that that's happening where the perpetrators are coming and taking over a large vessel that has cargo on there. And then the ship's crew in dem an ding a ransom. It's a great movie very well done. I liked i t ver y m uch. There's another one called proof of life with Russell Crowe. that tha t wa s a very v e ry good in the industry. So I tend to like watching movies l ike that movies based on real life or choose stor ies th at kind of thing and then added benefit obviously it hits close to home.

Kurt Thoennessen: 45:48

t hose those are both great movies. I was looking up some doing some research before this and I remember ransom. I watched Ransom when that first came out with Mel Gibson and Rene Russo a g r eat m ovie and taken

Fritz Barjon: 46:04

Taken with Liam Neesen

Kurt Thoennessen: 46:07

These movies. They they really ge t y ou emotionally connected to those situations.

Fritz Barjon: 46:15

Man on fire is another good one with Denzel Washington. That's a great one. very very well done speaks to kidnapping o r a n abduction in a foreign country. So that was well done as well.

Kurt Thoennessen: 46:29

I'm a movie guy. I love movies if I'm spending time with with my children or family or whatever we can sit down and watch a movie. That's what we do. I'm not sure I'm going to show th em t hose movies yet though. It was great chatting with you. And I just want to say again thank you. if people want to connect with you after the episode what's the best way for them to do that?

Fritz Barjon: 46:54

best way for them to connect with me is through our website. first Highland house usa.com. I'm also on LinkedIn at Highland house also has a page on LinkedIn. just or you can send me email fritz@highlandhouseusa.com and I w ill respond. Those are probably the best ways to get in touch with me.

Kurt Thoennessen: 47:18

Very good. Well thank you again and thank you to everybody who is listening to this podcast today. I hope you found this information very helpful in your efforts to protect the things matter most to You. If you'd like to be notified when a new episode is available please click the subscribe button. And also if you like the material in the show I would very grateful if you'd write a quick review thanks again for your time and have a great day and please be safe out there. Take care.