Special Terrorism, Kidnaping Insurance Covers Foreign Travelers

A major insurance company has started offering coverage that may give some peace of mind to travelers whose business paths lead to dangerous foreign lands.

Terrorism, kidnaping and extortion are facts of life in the world today. But if the worst does happen, at least where kidnaping and extortion are concerned, there is a new plan on the market to help companies rescue employees who have become victims.

Fireman’s Fund Insurance Co. earlier this year began offering U.S.-based corporations kidnaping, ransom and extortion insurance with limits ranging from $1 million to $30 million and annual premiums starting at $1,000.

Kidnaping/extortion insurance is nothing new; what is novel, according to the company, is that the Fireman’s Fund plan includes an on-call “crisis response service”--a kind of SWAT team composed of former FBI and law enforcement officers at Los Angeles-based Paul Chamberlain International.

Paul Chamberlain, who was a special agent for the FBI for 19 years, said his firm’s involvement in a typical kidnap case begins with cutting through the panic and misinformation that occur in the early stages. That might begin with experts who were former legal attaches at U.S. embassies abroad.

“We have a working relationship with the man in place to know, depending on the district, which police entities can be trusted, if any,” he said. “If we can trust them, we cut them into the loop.”

A team, including someone fluent in the local language, is sent to the country involved and, working with local officials, helps negotiate a release.

The insurance coverage, in addition to providing rescue efforts for the kidnap victim, protects the employer against loss of business and the cost of ransom. It will also pay for counseling for the victim and his or her family once the matter is resolved.

According to John Kozero, a spokesman for Fireman’s Fund, companies that have such protection rarely want to publicize it for fear of looking like a deep pocket ready to be picked.

Fireman’s Fund, of Novato, Calif., has annual gross premium revenue of $3.3 billion a year and is one of the top 20 property casualty insurers in the United States. It is a subsidiary of Allianz AG holdings of Munich, the sixth-largest insurer in the world.

Chamberlain said that, since 1981 he has been involved in 300 kidnaping cases, half of them in the United States. Of the domestic cases, most were resolved in three or four days.

The crime pattern where corporate America is involved has changed, he said.

“In the 1970s, the victims were individuals who were chairmen of the board or presidents of large corporations whose small children were taken hostage,” he said.

“The current targets are mid-level individuals who are perceived to have access to money--from stock and bond companies and the like,” Chamberlain said.

“The bottom line is you want the bad guys to pick someone else as a target, as heartless as that sounds,” he said, and a lot of that can be done by watching things like one’s lifestyle and place of residence.