Ounce of Prevention
CASE STUDY #212
Family leaders authorize residential security assessments for their kids’ homes
FAMILY’S CHALLENGE
During a regularly scheduled meeting in June of 2019, one of our client’s family office heads gave us a new task. “Excellent work so far,” she said. “We’re reviewing your recommendations on improving security for the family compound in Montana – and we can talk about how we want to implement most of those next week. Was it your suggestion that we also conduct security assessments of our adult children’s homes?” she asked. “Yes, that would be best,” we suggested. “Because your children are established within the family wealth structure and active participants in the family business and family office philanthropic activities, it’s important to expand the protective program to include their residences.”
PALADIN’S SOLUTION
Our solutions go beyond just installing deterrent systems; we provide a long-term wholistic approach to family safety, including training programs for incident-based scenarios for which families often do not plan, prepare or practice. Within just a few days, our team launched an assessment of the two additional residences owned by the son and daughter and their families. We were able to identify potential risks and threat vectors that would allow for a physical breach of their residences as well as various other risks associated potential criminal activities. The team also helped familiarize the families with emergency response and evacuation practices. Finally, we contacted local law enforcement, identifying the families, their plans to implement the identified physical and technical improvements to their properties, and conveying the LE agency’s appreciation for the protection of their family.
VALUE TO THE FAMILY
The family office CEO, in partnership with the family, had always had concerns about the residence-related risks for the eldest family members, though not yet the children. Our discussions identified the need for extension of those same protective measures to the children’s homes. Upon completion of the assessments, we worked with the family office CEO to oversee implementation of our recommendations for all the properties – an outcome that provided assurance to all family principals as well as the head of the family office.
The Project Manager’s Thoughts on this Engagement
“This protective assignment was a small component of a wider set of tasks supporting this family that involved residential security assessments at several homes and a comprehensive IT security review to ensure the privacy of the family’s information and communication.
It was a rewarding engagement because it was prevention-oriented: the actions we were taking were reducing the family’s window of risk – and we know this work gave them peace of mind.”