A personal security risk assessment is a structured look at the threats a person or family faces, how likely each one is, and where their life leaves them exposed. It ends with a written set of priorities: what to change now, what to change later and what can safely be left alone. For a high-net-worth family it covers the people, not only the house: their profile, routines, travel, online footprint, staff and children.
This guide explains what a good assessment looks at and what to expect from the findings. If you want one carried out for your family, see our personal and family risk assessment service. If your main concern is the house itself, our guide to what a residential security assessment involves covers the survey of the property.
A personal security risk assessment usually covers six areas:
- Threat profile: who might take an interest in you and why.
- Digital footprint: what can be learned about you and your family online.
- Routines and travel: where you are predictable, and when.
- Family exposure: children, partners and older relatives, each with their own pattern of life.
- People with access: household staff, contractors, advisers and drivers.
- Response: what happens if something does go wrong.
What Is a Personal Security Risk Assessment?
It is the step that comes before buying any security. Most families who ask for protection have a feeling that something is wrong, or a single incident that has unsettled them. An assessment turns that feeling into evidence: it names the realistic threats, rates them, and matches each one to a proportionate measure.
It is different from a home security survey. A survey asks whether the doors, alarm and cameras are good enough. A personal assessment asks a wider question: given who you are and how you live, what could happen to you, your family or your reputation, and what would stop it?
The answer is often less dramatic than people expect. Many families find their biggest exposures are ordinary ones: a predictable school run, a member of staff who posts on social media, an old planning application that shows the layout of the house, or a habit of announcing holidays online.
Threat Profiling: Who Might Target You, and Why?
A threat profile starts with the reasons someone might take an interest in you. The assessor looks at:
- Visibility of wealth: property, cars, art, a business sale or an inheritance that made the news.
- Public profile: media coverage, a role in public life, a well-known family name or a social media following.
- Business activity: disputes, redundancies, sensitive deals or work in higher-risk countries.
- Personal history: past incidents, a stalker, a hostile former employee or a family dispute.
From this the assessor builds a picture of the likely threat actors. For most families that means opportunist and organised criminals, fraudsters and people with a fixation. For a few it includes protest groups, the press or hostile interest linked to a business or a country.
Each threat is then rated on two things: how likely it is and how serious it would be. A burglary while the family is away may be fairly likely and serious; a kidnap may be unlikely but grave. That rating is what stops security spending going on the wrong thing. If kidnap is a real concern, our guide to tiger kidnapping explains how that crime works and how households guard against it.
Your Digital Footprint
Much of the planning behind a targeted crime now happens online. A digital footprint review looks at what someone could learn about you without ever coming near your home:
- Addresses and property: company filings, planning applications, estate agent listings that were never taken down, and photographs that show the house or its layout.
- Routines: posts that show where you go, when, and who with, especially if they are tagged with a location.
- Family members: children’s and partners’ accounts, which often say more than the principal’s own.
- Staff and contractors: posts by household staff that show the inside of the house, the cars or the family’s plans.
- Leaked data: email addresses and passwords exposed in old data breaches, which fraudsters use to impersonate you or your advisers.
The aim is not to take the family offline. It is to know what is out there, remove what can be removed and agree simple rules for the future, such as posting holiday photographs after you get home rather than while you are away.
Routines, Travel and Movement
Predictability is what makes a person easy to target. The assessment maps your regular movements: the school run, the office, the gym, regular restaurants, weekend homes and travel abroad. It asks where those movements are fixed in time and place, and where you are most exposed, such as arriving at and leaving the house.
For travel, it looks at how itineraries are shared, how you move from airports and between venues, and what support exists if something goes wrong in another country. Where the risk calls for it, the findings may recommend close protection for particular journeys or events rather than all the time. Our checklist for secure travel contingencies covers the travel side in more detail.
Family Members and Children
Each member of the family has their own pattern of life, and the assessment treats them separately. Children are often the most exposed: their schools, clubs and friends are easy to find, and their routines are fixed by the school timetable. Older relatives may live alone or keep to habits that are easy to observe. A partner may have a public role of their own.
The findings should fit each person’s age and life. Teenagers need to understand why some things matter, in terms that make sense to them, or they will work around the rules. Our guide to protecting children and the school run goes into this in more depth.
Staff, Advisers and the People with Access
The people closest to a family know the most about it. Household staff, nannies, drivers, house managers, contractors and even advisers know where you are, when the house is empty and where valuables are kept. Most are loyal, but the assessment checks how they were chosen, what they can see and who else they might tell.
Common findings include staff who were never properly checked, contractors with unsupervised access, and information shared more widely than anyone needs. Thorough staff vetting, clear rules on access and confidentiality, and a habit of noticing changes in behaviour close most of these gaps. Where a family office manages the household, it is usually best placed to own these controls. Our article on insider threats explains why this matters.
What Is Changing in Risk Assessment
Two changes now come up in most assessments:
- Social media. Families, staff and friends publish far more than they did a decade ago. A picture of a new car, a tagged restaurant or a school sports day can show where you live, what you own and when you are away. Assessments now review these accounts as a matter of course, and repeat the review, because the picture changes every week.
- Drones. Small camera drones can look over walls and into gardens that were once private. Assessments now consider what can be seen from the air, especially for houses with large grounds, and what the family would do if they found a drone watching them. In the UK, flying a drone is regulated by the Civil Aviation Authority, and some measures used abroad to stop drones are not legal for private use here, so any response needs advice first.
Connected homes add a third point: cameras, door entry systems and smart locks are only as secure as their settings and passwords, so they are now reviewed alongside the physical security.
What Happens After the Assessment?
A good assessment ends with a short, clear report. It should set out the threats in order of priority, the gaps found, and a recommendation for each one, with the reason for it. Some recommendations cost nothing, such as changing a routine or tightening social media settings. Others involve people, training, equipment or building work.
Expect the report to be honest about what is not needed. A family with a modest profile may need better habits, good locks and a monitored alarm, not a protection team. The test of the report is whether you can act on it.
An assessment is also not a one-off. It should be reviewed whenever life changes: a move, a business sale, a new public role, a child starting school, an incident, or simply once a year.
FAQs
What is the difference between a personal security assessment and a home security survey?
A home security survey looks at the property: doors, windows, alarms, cameras, lighting and boundaries. A personal security assessment looks at the people: who might target them, how they could be found and followed, their routines, travel, online exposure and the staff around them. Many families need both, and the personal assessment usually decides how much the home survey needs to cover.
How long does a personal risk assessment take?
It depends on the size of the family, the number of homes and how much travel is involved. A simple assessment for one household may take a few days from first meeting to report. A family with several homes, a business profile and staff in more than one country will take longer, because each part needs looking at separately. Ask for a timetable at the start.
Will an assessment mean we need bodyguards?
Not necessarily. Most recommendations are about habits, information and the security of the home, and many cost little or nothing. Close protection is recommended where the threat calls for it, and often only for particular journeys, events or periods. A good assessor recommends what the evidence supports, not the most expensive answer, and explains why each measure is there.
Is the information we share kept confidential?
It should be. You will be sharing addresses, routines, family details and sometimes worries about people you know. Ask how the assessor stores and shares that information, who will see the report, and whether staff sign confidentiality agreements. A professional firm will expect these questions and should be able to answer them clearly before any work starts.
What to Do Next
If you would like an independent view of your family’s exposure, start with a risk assessment for you and your family. It will tell you where you stand and what, if anything, needs to change.