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Kidnap and ransom

Cover whose value depends on its secrecy, reimbursing a ransom paid and above all giving immediate access to a professional crisis-response team.

Definition

Kidnap and ransom insurance is the only line in which the contract directly alters the risk it covers, since disclosing its existence raises the danger and can void it, so that many protected people do not know they are covered. It operates by reimbursement and not payment, the insurer never dealing with an abductor, which keeps it clear of crime-financing and sanctions regimes. Its central element is not reimbursement but access to a team of negotiators, security consultants and legal advisers. Concentrated in a single market that shares its claims data, it does not merely carry a risk, it governs a price, calibrating consistent offers that stabilize the criminal market rather than feeding it, the release rate exceeding ninety-seven per cent where such cover is in place.

Example

The response team's first task is to establish proof of life, a question only the person taken can answer, since a share of demands come from opportunists holding nobody.

Related terms
Also known as

assurance enlèvement et rançon, K&R, kidnap and ransom insurance, assurance rançon