A standard home policy insures a building and its contents. The risks that keep a high-net-worth family awake at night are different: a car taken at a traffic light with a child in the back seat, a break-in while the family is at home, a former employee who will not stop, a threat that arrives by phone. In the private-client household wordings we place, these risks sit inside the same contract as the house, in a section called family protection. Of the high-value home policies we place, this section is part of Chubb Masterpiece Signature; the Hiscox and Liberty home policies do not include it.
What family protection covers
- Carjacking — the forced removal or detention of a family member during the theft or attempted theft of a car.
- Aggravated burglary — violence or the threat of it by an intruder inside the house, a temporary residence, a boat or a motorhome while the family or guests are there.
- Aggravated assault — a robbery or attempted robbery with violence away from home.
- Stalking threat — repeated acts against the family by a person already subject to a court order or injunction.
- Child abduction of a child under 13.
- Hijacking — a family member held by force for more than four hours aboard a commercial plane, ship or train.
- Air rage and road rage incidents.
Depending on the event, the policy pays medical expenses, psychiatric and psychological support, rest and recuperation, professional security consultants and guards, upgraded home security, temporary relocation, and a lump sum for permanent injury or death. Cover is worldwide, except in countries under a Portuguese Ministry of Foreign Affairs travel warning at the time.
Kidnap: what Portuguese law allows
Portuguese law (article 14 of Decree-Law 72/2008) prohibits insuring the risk of kidnap itself. What a policy can do, and the wordings we place do, is pay kidnap expenses: a professional negotiator, security and public-relations consultants, guards, travel and lodging for the family, communications, legal costs, medical and psychological care for the person released, lost earnings, and a reward for information leading to an arrest. For families with genuine exposure — frequent travel to higher-risk countries, a public profile, business interests abroad — a dedicated kidnap, ransom and extortion policy adds crisis-response consultants from the first call.
Cyberbullying and reputation
When a family member is harassed, threatened or defamed online by the same person or group on more than three occasions, and it leads to a lost job, a wrongful arrest, a school disciplinary action or more than a week away from school or work, the policy pays for a public-relations consultant, a digital forensic analyst, a cyber-security consultant and an online reputation service, plus lost salary and temporary relocation, within set limits.
Is your family covered, or only your house?
Send us your current household and liability policies. We tell you in writing what is missing.
The liability around it
The same household policy carries personal liability for the family worldwide, in limits up to €10 million, with defence costs paid on top. Some details are worth knowing:
- Golf: damage to other people’s property paid regardless of fault, a personal-accident benefit and even a hole-in-one allowance.
- Children’s play equipment — trampolines, bouncy castles — and golf carts and quad bikes used on the grounds.
- Domestic staff injured at work where the employer is at fault, on top of the compulsory workers’ compensation.
- Credit cards, forged cheques and counterfeit notes.
- A let residence and small incidental activities at home.
The exclusions matter as much: boats of 26 feet or more or over 50 hp need their own policy, as do paid board positions (D&O), professional activities and dogs classified as dangerous under Portuguese law.
A short checklist
- Does your household policy include a family protection section at all?
- Are carjacking, home invasion and stalking covered for every family member?
- Is your liability limit proportionate to your wealth, with defence costs on top?
- Are boats, paid directorships and professional activities insured elsewhere?
- If the family travels to higher-risk countries, is there a dedicated kidnap and extortion policy?
Talk to us
Adler & Rochefort places private-client household cover with family protection, and dedicated kidnap, ransom and extortion policies, for families in Portugal and Spain. We review what you have, discreetly and in writing. See also family liability cover and kidnap and ransom planning for family offices.
Adler & Rochefort is a commercial brand of Ownizo, Unipessoal Lda., registered with the ASF under no. 425591790/3. General information from an insurance intermediary, not personalised advice; what a policy covers depends on its wording and on the insurer’s acceptance of the risk.