An excerpt from the soon-to-be-released 2012 Security Study Report

By Kathleen M. McBride

Even as banks and some MFOs and SFOs implement measures to mitigate security risks, many, particularly SFOs, remain “blatantly vulnerable, without exception” to hacking, says Paul Michael Viollis, Sr., PhD, CEO of Risk Control Strategies. Calling it a new form of “organized crime,” very sophisticated hackers from Russia and China have been targeting family office computer systems in the last 18 months, considering them to be low hanging fruit because “they do relatively nothing to protect themselves.”

Multifamily offices and SFOs “either do it themselves or use their IT guy, ... more

HUB International WhitePaper

[An] explosion of communication has changed what people think is private and what is not. Social media makes it nearly effortless to share personal information in an instant: post pictures of your children, express political or religious views, even disclose your current location. We are becoming more comfortable with less privacy. Because everyone is doing it, our sense of how safe all this information sharing is can be skewed, increasing our ... more

An Interview with Catherine Hooper, Founder, Black Umbrella


Are private families more or less at risk from disasters?

The best survival tool is not a fixed blade knife or a fire making kit.  It’s a prepared mind.

The core purpose of Black Umbrella is to make people, families, and communities more resilient.  Our company values serve as the keystone of all of our recruitment and training efforts: confidence over fear, protection, and meticulousness.  We believe that confidence in the face of the unexpected is a natural result of having made a plan in advance. Our brains work differently in a crisis.

Yes, of ... more

An Exclusive Interview with Paul Viollis, Risk Control Strategies


“Cheap is expensive. You never get a second chance to protect a human asset.”

These are Dr. Paul Viollis’ words of counsel and caution to affluent clients and family office executives in their responsibilities to assure personal safety and financial security. “We don’t have a victim mentality unless we become victims. People don’t want to accept the reality that there are significant risks."

Dr. Viollis sees our culture responding to potential threats and risks by employing familiar rationalizations and denials, an ‘it isn’t going to happen ... more

Although the wealthy have regained much of their net worth from the partial
recovery of global financial markets, they have not regained their confidence in
those markets. As a result, an increasing number are turning their passions for
fine art, fine wine, and other collectibles into more than a ... more

Demand among high net worth individuals to acquire works of fine art, valuable jewelry, fine wine and other collections increased in 2010 and continues to grow in 2011, resulting in sales on par with pre-recession ... more

Author: American Security Project

Think you are immune from domestic ... more

Fueled by the rapid expansion of global wealth, the market for fine art and collectibles continues to climb – along with prices. The recent explosion of interest in the art and collections market creates new threats and complex ... more

Survey Reveals Common Opportunities to Maximize the Value of Personal Insurance Programs


The unprecedented destruction of wealth due to the financial crisis and its lingering effects have forced affluent consumers and even the super rich to do something they rarely like to do—take a hard look at their personal insurance ... more