Physical, Digital Security High On Agenda For HNW Individuals

Tom Burroughes

24 June 2026

Wealth inequality, political polarization and a sometimes-ugly public culture have fed into concerns among C-suite figures, entrepreneurs and holders of great wealth that they must watch their physical security.

Unpleasant realities come into mind when there are major events to which people want to attend and be seen at – there’s the FIFA World Cup soccer tournament under way in the US, Canada and Mexico. Los Angeles is due to soon play host to the Olympic Games; Formula One motor races in Monaco, Miami, Singapore and other centres of wealth attract HNW individuals and the bosses of the firms that advise them. Tennis tournaments in London and Paris and other events bring out the sun , crowds and VIPs.

Such events give those in the security business a lot of work to do.

Security fears come on top of geopolitical volatility that has roiled markets, hit travel plans and business plans. They’ve also boosted the security sector’s earnings.

Dale Buckner, CEO of Global Guardian, an international firm, said that in 2025 his firm’s revenues surged by 47 per cent year-over-year. “The world continues to escalate in different types of conflict,” Buckner, who has spoken to FWR before about these issues, told this publication in a call. Executive protection work skyrocketed for the firm by 71 per cent last year.

Asked if wealthy individuals, C-suite figures and potentially exposed individuals are more reluctant to attend major events – particularly with large crowds – than they were before, Buckner said: “100 per cent. They are.”

“10 years ago, they would go without protection and did not think twice about this. That’s all changed. Now it is more like `should we even go?’”

Security concerns remain high, but there are also worries about how far the message about risk management is getting through. A study from Presage Global and Nines, called The State of Family Office Security 2026 – running to a hefty 103 pages – finds that professionalization of risk and security issues has a way to go. This appears to overlap with Buckner's concern that many people may still not realize that vulnerabilities exist.

The boundaries between digital and physical security can be blurred – techniques to capture private data can have real-world, potentially lethal, effects.

Eddie Marshall, CEO and founder of Presage, says there's a gap in security and risk awareness that must be closed. "They hire world-class investment advisors. They retain elite tax counsel. They build governance structures for the operating business. And then they go home to the single environment where the entire family is physically, emotionally, and digitally exposed and manage it the way they managed it in the past. Alarms on the doors. A trusted house manager who 'knows everyone.' A consumer camera or two. A folder somewhere," he said in the report.

"I call this the residential exception; the part of family life that never gets the treatment the rest of the enterprise gets. And the data in the report you are about to read makes the exception visible in a way it has not been before," Marshall said.

Earlier this year, FWR interviewed Jordan Arnold, the founding principal and CEO of Jetty Partners who, as reported, said: “I believe the most significant and growing threat is the one that cuts across both cyber and physical domains: the sheer volume of personal information now available online and the ease with which it can be weaponized. Home addresses, family details, travel patterns, property records, and public affiliations create visibility that can make families more vulnerable to being watched or targeted.”

There is also a sense of isolation that UHNW individuals might feel – knowing that their concerns aren’t likely to win much sympathy from the broad public when inflation and other problems are hitting living standards. Even so, the risks to property and life cannot be dismissed, as the murder of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson in late 2024 demonstrated.

Points of vulnerability
Buckner reiterated a point he’s made before, which is vulnerability for those traveling to a particular event, be it a soccer stadium, theater or concert, is not usually inside the venue, which increasingly comes with high security, but the route to it once someone has exited a vehicle. Another risk that presents itself are “lone wolf” attackers, he said.

Those who want to attend events, need to understand exfiltration plans in case matters go bad, such as ensuring that security staff are prepared to extract people from a venue, with agreed meeting points, messages to be sent to contact loved ones, and more.

AI-powered worries
Switching gears and examining the cybersecurity side, the Presage/Nines report said 65 per cent of respondents identified AI-powered attacks as their top emerging concern. With all the relentless media focus on AI, that’s unsurprising. Family Wealth Report also heard last week in New York about the concerns that family offices have, as set out in FWR's family office cybersecurity forum.

“They are right to . A synthetic voice can be generated from a single podcast clip. A deepfake video can target a principal's child. A phishing kit can be assembled on a coffee break. The attack surface for a high net worth family in 2026 is materially different from that which existed even two years ago,” Marshall said. The survey found that 47 per cent of family offices have never conducted a risk assessment or only assess after incidents. The "reactive only" group of families indicated the highest incident rate among assessment-frequency categories . Some 60 per cent of improvements are triggered by incidents; only 19 per cent by regular risk assessments.

Among other findings from the report, it said 62 per cent of household staff receive zero formal security training. Only 4 per cent say training is sufficient. AI-powered attacks are the top emerging concern , yet only 7 per cent of respondents report providing formal cybersecurity training to family members.

Targets
Back to the more physical side of the matter, Buckner noted that while overall crime in the US has fallen, targeting of HNW individuals and their families has increased. Much of this is committed by organized gangs who use sophisticated techniques – including knowing how to disable security cameras and other protections. Gangs can track when, for example, a sports star is playing away from his or home base and therefore try to burgle the home. “It is all very well-orchestrated,” he said.

Records of company filings, tracking social media, charitable involvement and other activity can give criminals clues on where people spend their time. As this article by Jay Rogers at FWR recently showed, bad actors have plenty of information to act on.

“We are living on Instagram, Facebook…there is a lot of this notoriety online. It is wildly dangerous,” he said.

FWR asked Buckner about the thousands of millionaires and multi-millionaires at SpaceX who are being minted by the record-breaking IPO. “We are trying to get ahead of the situation…we say to people that you are going to have a completely different exposure profile and you need to act right now.

“The number of IPOs next year is, if you can believe it, going to be even greater than last year,” Buckner added.