Exceptional Risk Advisors, the high net worth insurance specialst, is now offering "World Cup Coverage" - an insurance product for rich travelers heading for the World Cup this June in Brazil.

Exceptional Risk Advisors, the high net worth insurance specialist, is now offering "World Cup Coverage" - an insurance product for wealthy travelers heading for the World Cup this June in Brazil.

The firm says Brazil is rife with kidnappings and has the seventh-highest homicide rate in the world, so rich fans should fully protect themselves insurance-wise.

“Corporate executives and entrepreneurs are experienced risk takers who aren't easily bothered by anything negative and tend to see themselves as invincible,” said Ted Tafaro, chief executive at ERA. “It's not that they throw caution to the wind, but that they believe themselves to be exempt from harm and they're not about to let anything, even the possibility of a kidnapping keep them from attending the World Cup. But their sense of invulnerability just makes them more vulnerable, particularly in a country where kidnapping, murder and mayhem are commonplace.”

Crisis management company red24 added that short-term kidnappings are a real threat facing foreign nationals at the World Cup where, for example, the is a risk of fans being forced to withdraw money or hand over PIN details so that money can be withdrawn from ATMs.

Yet, realistically, it is petty crime rather than kidnappings that present the most realistic danger. “Already-high petty crime rates will likely be elevated, particularly near stadiums, popular tourist areas and transport hubs; violent crime will remain an ever-present concern, mainly in lower-income areas and within cities at night,” red24 said in its Threat Forecast report for 2014. 

ERA's World Cup coverage includes: pre-trip World Cup security briefing; urgent security push notifications; kidnap and ransom; accidental death and dismemberment coverage; accidental disability insurance; emergency evacuation and repatriation; medical accident expense reimbursement; and emergency assistance.

Looking at the HNW insurance trend more broadly, Jonathan Crystal, executive vice president at Crystal & Company, told Family Wealth Report in an interview last year:

“We are seeing two to three inquiries a week from clients seeking advice on travel-related concerns, whereas just a few years ago, that might have been two to three times a month. In some sense, that’s an indication of how our business has grown, but also a reflection of the times.”

“I think there is more awareness of political risk or what I call ‘headline risk’,” he added (see more here).