The ACE International Advantage insurance program is designed to cover a variety of risks for employees working or traveling internationally with their primary insurance offering for expatriates traditionally being international workers compensation insurance.

Kidnap and Ransom insurance is now a standard part of the International Advantage Insurance plan offered by ACE USA.  The Advantage Package now includes $100,000 of automatic Kidnap and Extortion coverage at no additional charge.

The Kidnap and Ransom coverage includes kidnapping, property extortion, bodily injury extortion, product extortion, and information extortion.  A $100,000 kidnap benefit is included with options to increase the benefit up to $5,000,000 USD. 

KNR incidents are handled by Neil Young associates founded in 1990.  Like any good KnR insurance company, the consultant is an independent company.  Neil Young Associates is a premier global crisis consultant that provides information services and crisis response to clients, of which ACE USA is one.

Essentially, throwing in Kidnap and Ransom Insurance at no cost sounds great, but the standard benefit does have the following country exclusions:  

Kidnap and Ransom insurance in Afghanistan, Nepal and Pakistan 
Kidnap and Ransom insurance in Algeria, Sudan and Syria
Kidnap and Ransom insurance in Angola, Sierre Leone and Somalia 
Kidnap and Ransom insurance in Brazil, Saudi Arabia, and Philippines 
Kidnap and Ransom insurance in Chad, Liberia, and Libya 
Kidnap and Ransom insurance in Chechnya, Indonesia and Sri Lanka 
Kidnap and Ransom insurance in Colombia and Zimbabwe 
Kidnap and Ransom insurance in the Congo, Nigeria 
Kidnap and Ransom insurance in Cuba, Russia, and East Timor 
Kidnap and Ransom insurance in Georgia, Venezuala, and Yemen
Kidnap and Ransom insurance in Hatii, Mexico and Peru
Kidnap and Ransom insurance in Iraq, Iran, and North Korea

… all excluded

 All of these countries, which are more expensive and difficult for kidnap and ransom underwriting, can be written by ACE USA at the discretion of their underwriters and for additional premium on a case by case basis with some exceptions like North Korea for example (and other sanctioned countries).

Chubb still a quality provider

Chubb still maintains it’s reputation as being a first rate insurance company in the corporate  marketplace, and this also applies to the Chubb kidnap and ransom insurance offering.

Most good international kidnap and ransom insurance companies partner with an independent outside consulting / security company for services in case they are needed and Chubb partners with the Ackerman Group, which specializes in kidnap and extortion threats globally.  The Ackerman Group has a good solid reputation.  For being a Chubb client Chubb guarantees the services of the Ackerman Group.  Many K&R insurance policies may tout the services of a famous negotiator, but in a crisis may be able to use another firm swapping one out for another.  Read the fine print.

In addition to investigation and on the ground negotiation, Ackerman also provides Chubb with a proprietary service called Risk Net, an online database that provides threat profiles for the countries of interest to clients before they decide to travel to a country on business so they can make good decisions.

In addition to the “normal” kidnap and ransom insurance and extortion benefit, Chubb also offers clients a benefit called Cyber Extortion Coverage which can pay a benefit for a legitimate threat to destroy data such as a threat that a computer system will be hacked or hit with a virus if the company does not pay ransom money.  Chubb can offer policy limits up to $25,000,000 but policy limits of more than $1,000,000 are not typical and often unnecessary in most countries where kidnap and ransom is a threat.