Family Office High Net Worth Individuals Security: Away Days

Family office high net worth individuals security on the days everyone knows you are away

Family office high net worth individuals security has to answer a question that many families never ask directly: what happens to the house on the days when the whole world knows the principal is somewhere else? For professional athletes, the answer is printed in the fixture list. For business owners, it is in conference programs, award ceremonies, shareholder meetings and charity galas. For entertainers, it is on a tour schedule. Every one of those calendars tells a capable burglary crew when a home is likely to be empty, or when the person who lives there is likely to come home late, tired and distracted.

Two cases from the past week show both sides of that problem. On October 22, 2026, BBC Sport reported that the Cheshire home of Manchester United captain Bruno Fernandes was burgled on Wednesday evening while he was in Italy for the club’s Champions League match against Como. According to the BBC, it is understood his family were not in the house and the intruders were inside for less than five minutes before police arrived. Cheshire Police told the BBC that officers responded after a caller reported “three unknown men in the rear garden of a neighbouring property”, and that a burglary had taken place at the address, though the force could neither confirm nor deny the identity of the victim. Detective Inspector David Jarvis said the investigation was in its early stages.

Three days later, on October 25, la Repubblica reported that thieves had broken into the home of Napoli player Alisson Santos in Giugliano while he was asleep. According to that report, he realized on waking that his home had been entered, a Rolex watch and a necklace had been taken, and the thieves had driven off in his own car, which the Carabinieri later recovered in Villaricca. No one was injured, and it was not clear whether the thieves fled because they realized he was there. The paper reported that the player, who is injured, had been in the stands for Napoli’s match against Roma the day before, and that the local Prefect ordered a significant increase in policing in residential areas.

I am not writing about either player. Both cases are under investigation, and the families involved deserve privacy. I am writing about the pattern. The BBC noted that it is the latest case of a family home being burgled while a player was away with his team, and listed earlier victims in the same area. The Italian case shows the other half of the problem: a home entered on the night after a public appearance, with the owner inside. This article supports the family office section of our complete 2026 guide to high net worth security, and it builds on our earlier piece on guarding the family schedule, which deals with leaks. This article deals with the dates that cannot be hidden.

Key takeaways

• Family office high net worth individuals security should include an “away day” protocol for every date when the principal’s absence is publicly known.
• When an absence cannot be hidden, the job shifts from secrecy to making the empty house hard to enter and quick to respond.
• The night after a public appearance is a second risk window, because the principal returns home late and the house may be entered while people sleep.
• Neighbors and response time matter. In the Cheshire case, a call about men in a neighboring garden and a fast police response are reported to have limited the intruders to minutes.
• Home security for high net worth individuals has to protect keys, vehicles and valuables inside the house, not just the doors and windows.
• Security for UHNW family offices is about coordination: one calendar, one owner and one checklist for every away day.

Why public absences are a family office problem

When a family’s life runs through a family office, the office already holds the calendar. It handles the flights, arranges the hotel, tells the household staff when to expect the family back, and pays the alarm company. That makes it the natural owner of the away day problem. In many families, though, nobody in the office has been asked to think about security on those days. The travel team thinks about travel. The household manager thinks about the house. The security provider, if there is one, may not even receive the calendar.

That gap is where risk grows. A crew watching a public calendar does not need inside information. It needs to know that on a particular evening the principal will be on television in another country, and that the house is likely to be empty or lightly occupied. Fixture lists, conference agendas, award nominations, red carpet schedules and charity events are all public. Social media posts from the venue confirm the timing in real time. A family office that treats those dates like any other day in the calendar is leaving the house to chance.

Who faces this risk

Footballers are the obvious example, because their schedules are fixed months in advance and broadcast live. The BBC reported that the Fernandes burglary followed a similar case in January involving Manchester City player Ruben Dias, whose home was targeted while he was at a Champions League match, and that earlier victims in the same area include Jack Grealish, Raheem Sterling and Riyad Mahrez. But the same pattern applies to many other families. A founder giving a keynote at a major conference, a family attending a well publicized wedding abroad, a philanthropist hosting a gala in another city and an actor at a premiere all create a public window when their home is likely to be empty.

Business leaders often assume they are less exposed than athletes because their faces are less familiar. In my experience, the difference is smaller than they think. Company announcements, industry press and event photographs make the calendar of a senior executive surprisingly easy to follow, and the homes of wealthy business families can be identified through the same public records that expose anyone else.

Building an away day protocol for family office high net worth individuals security

An away day protocol is a short, repeatable plan that the family office runs every time the principal or the family will be away on a date that is publicly known. It does not need to be complicated. It does need an owner, a trigger and a checklist. In the families we work with, the protocol usually covers seven areas.

1. One calendar, shared with the people who protect the house

The first step is administrative and easy to overlook. The security provider, the residential team and the alarm monitoring company should know, in advance, which dates are public absences. That does not mean sharing the full travel itinerary. It means a simple list: dates, expected times away and whether anyone will be home. A residential officer who knows that the principal is playing in Italy tonight, or speaking in New York tomorrow, will treat a figure in the garden very differently from one who assumes the family is upstairs.

The family office should also decide which public dates count. Fixtures, televised events, award ceremonies, well publicized trips and any event where the family will be photographed should all be on the list. When in doubt, the date goes on the list.

2. Decide who is in the house

An empty house is easier to burgle than an occupied one, but an occupied house carries its own risks if the people inside are unprepared. For each away day, the family office should make a deliberate choice. Will a trusted house sitter or member of staff stay overnight? Will a residential officer be on site for the evening, which is the period when many burglaries of this type are reported? Or will the house be left empty with alarm monitoring and a mobile response?

There is no single right answer. A large estate with a full time residential team is in a different position from a family home in a suburban road. What matters is that the decision is made on purpose, rather than by default because nobody thought about it.

3. Make the response fast

The Cheshire case, as reported by the BBC, shows how much the response matters. The intruders were reportedly inside for less than five minutes before police arrived, after a caller reported unknown men in a neighboring garden. I do not know the full details of that response, and I will not guess. But the general lesson is clear. A burglary crew working an empty house on a known date is working against the clock, and every minute you take off the response time reduces what they can reach.

For an empty house on an away day, that means monitoring that verifies alerts quickly, a response that can reach the property in minutes, and alarm zones covering the rooms where valuables are kept. Our article on high net worth security services and response time explains how we measure and reduce those minutes.

4. Use the neighbors

The call in the Cheshire case reportedly came from someone who noticed three unknown men in the rear garden of a neighboring property. That detail matters. Burglary crews often move through gardens and back boundaries rather than along the street, and the first people likely to see them are neighbors. A family that is on good terms with the people next door, and has exchanged phone numbers with them, has an extra set of eyes on the nights that matter.

The family office can make this easy. A short note to trusted neighbors, or to the neighbors’ household staff, asking them to call the police and the family’s security contact if they see anyone in the gardens on a given evening, costs nothing. In gated communities and private estates, the community security team can be told about the away dates as well. Our piece on high net worth security services in gated communities discusses how to work with shared security without relying on it completely.

5. Harden the back of the house

In many burglaries of family homes, the entry point is at the rear, where the crew is hidden from the street. Rear glass doors, garden rooms, terraces and side gates are often weaker than the front door. On away days, those are the areas where detection and delay make the biggest difference. Perimeter sensors along a rear boundary, cameras covering the garden, lighting that responds to movement, and laminated or security glass on the rear openings all buy time.

Home security for high net worth individuals should be assessed from the back of the property first, because that is the side a crew is likely to choose. Our article on high net worth security for empty homes and second homes covers how to protect property that is regularly unoccupied.

6. Protect what is inside, including the keys

The Italian report describes thieves taking a watch, a necklace and then the owner’s own car. When a crew gets inside, it will look for small, valuable items and for the means to carry them away. That makes the inside of the house part of the protective plan.

• Watches, jewelry and cash should be in a properly installed safe or a strong room, not in a bedroom drawer or a dressing room display.
• Car keys and key fobs should be stored away from the front door and out of sight, ideally in a locked cabinet or safe, so that a crew cannot simply drive away with the family’s cars.
• Valuable items that are not needed at home can be stored in a bank vault or secure storage during periods of high public absence.
• An inventory with photographs and serial numbers should be kept up to date, so that the police and insurers have accurate information if anything is taken.

Our article on home security for high net worth individuals with collections at home goes further into the protection of valuable items.

7. Hold back the posts

The last element is information. When a principal is on a public stage, there is little point hiding the fact. But there is no need to add to it. Family members can delay posting holiday photographs, hotel views and airport selfies until they are home. Staff can be asked not to mention that the family is away. Deliveries can be paused. Each of these steps reduces the confirmation a crew can get in real time that nobody is in the house.

Why crews favor publicly known absences

From a burglary crew’s point of view, a publicly known absence solves several problems at once. It tells them when to come. It gives them a reasonable expectation that the house will be empty, or that the owner will not be in a position to react. It lets them watch the event on television or online to confirm that the principal is where the schedule says. And it gives them a predictable window of a few hours before the family returns.

That is why the same pattern appears in one area after another. The BBC report describes a series of burglaries at players’ homes in the same part of Cheshire over several years. The two cases above, in England and Italy within a few days of each other, show it is not confined to one country. The response does not have to be dramatic. It has to remove the advantages the public calendar gives the crew: the empty house becomes occupied or watched, the slow response becomes fast, the rear of the house becomes hard to enter, and the valuables are no longer in easy reach.

The rhythm of a season or a year

Families with public calendars should also think about rhythm. A footballer plays away matches on a regular cycle through the season. A business leader may attend the same conferences every year. A family may spend the same weeks abroad every summer and the same holidays at a ski house every winter. Patterns like these make it easier for a crew to plan weeks in advance. The away day protocol should therefore look across the whole year, not just at next week. It should identify the recurring dates and make sure they receive the same attention every time, especially the fifth or sixth time, when the family is tempted to relax.

Other properties, same calendar

When a principal is away, every property they own is affected, not just the main home. A second home that is usually staffed may be empty because staff have traveled with the family. A city apartment may be unoccupied while the family is at the country house. The away day list should cover all of the family’s properties, with a clear note of which are occupied on each date. Our article on empty homes and second homes covers the protection of properties that are often unoccupied.

The second window: the night after

The case in Italy points to a risk window that many families overlook. The player was reported to have been in the stands at a match the day before, and to have woken to find that his home had been entered while he slept. I do not know whether the two facts are connected, and the report does not say so. But the general pattern is one I have seen many times. After a public event, the principal comes home late, often tired, sometimes after a celebration. The house may not have been fully secured. The alarm may be off because people are moving around. And anyone who watched the event knows roughly when the principal will get home.

Private security for high net worth family homes should treat the night after a public event as part of the away day. That means the house is checked before the family arrives, the arrival itself is planned, the alarm is set in the perimeter and ground floor zones once everyone is inside, and valuables worn at the event, such as watches and jewelry, go straight into the safe rather than onto a bedside table. Our article on private security for high net worth family in occupied homes describes night time routines in more detail.

Close protection for UHNW families when part of the family stays home

Not every away day leaves the house empty. Often the principal travels while a spouse, children or elderly parents stay at home. In some ways that is a harder situation to protect. The house is occupied, so the alarm may be partly off and doors may be opened for deliveries and visitors. The people at home may assume that, because the principal is away, nobody will be interested in the house. And a crew that expects an empty house may react unpredictably if it finds people inside.

Close protection for UHNW families in this situation focuses on the people who stayed. They should know that the away date is public, and that the house deserves extra care that evening. Doors and gates should be closed and locked earlier than usual. The perimeter alarm zones should be set as soon as the family settles for the evening. Someone should know where to go and whom to call if they hear anything at the back of the house. If there are young children or elderly relatives at home, a residential officer for the evening may be a sensible step. Our article on close protection for UHNW families with elderly parents discusses the particular needs of older family members.

Personal security for high networth individuals on the road

The principal who is away has their own exposure. The same public calendar that tells a crew the house is empty also tells people where the principal will be. Hotels, venues, restaurants after the event and the journey back to the airport are all predictable. Personal security for high networth individuals on a publicly known trip should include a simple plan for arrivals and departures, attention to who knows the hotel and room details, and care with valuables carried and worn.

Watches and jewelry are a particular issue. Items that look natural at a gala or on a red carpet attract attention on the way back to the car or the hotel. A principal who travels with high value items should know where they will be stored overnight and who is responsible for them between the event and the safe. Our article on personal security for high networth individuals in hotels covers the hotel side in more depth.

Household staff on away days

Household staff often know more about the away dates than anyone else, and they are often the people who are in the house, or not in it, on the night that matters. A housekeeper who usually leaves at six, a gardener who works until four and a driver who has gone with the principal to the airport all affect whether the house is occupied at the hours when burglaries of this kind are reported.

The away day protocol should give staff a simple brief. Who is expected at the house that day, and when do they leave? Who locks up and sets the alarm, and how do they confirm it has been done? What should they do if they arrive the next morning and find something wrong? And who should they call if they notice anything unusual in the days before an away date, such as a car parked nearby or a stranger asking questions? Staff should also be reminded not to discuss the family’s travel with anyone outside the household. Our guide to household staff vetting for UHNW families covers the trust side of that relationship.

What recommended HNW security teams do differently on away days

Families sometimes ask what separates recommended HNW security teams from providers who simply supply guards. On away days, the difference shows in a few habits. Good teams ask for the calendar rather than waiting to be told. They raise their posture on the evenings that matter instead of keeping the same routine every night. They walk the back of the property before dark, check that rear doors and windows are secure, and confirm that the alarm and cameras are working. They know the neighbors and the local police. And they write a short note afterwards, recording anything unusual, even when nothing happens.

They also avoid creating new signals. A marked vehicle parked outside a footballer’s house on match night tells anyone watching that the player is away and that someone has been hired to watch the house. A quieter approach, with a residential officer out of sight and a response that can reach the property quickly, protects the house without advertising the absence. High net worth security services that understand this will build the away day plan around discretion as well as coverage.

A sample away day timeline

The details vary from family to family, but a typical away day protocol run by a family office looks something like this.

One week before

• The family office confirms the public date and adds it to the away day list.
• The security provider, residential team and monitoring company receive the date and expected times.
• A decision is made on who will be in the house and whether a residential officer will be on site.
• Any valuables not needed at home are moved to secure storage.

The day before

• The residential team or household manager walks the property, front and back, and checks doors, windows, gates, lighting, cameras and alarm zones.
• Car keys are secured, and vehicles not needed are locked in the garage.
• Trusted neighbors are told, if the family is comfortable with it, that the house will be empty or lightly occupied.
• Deliveries and contractor visits are rescheduled.

The day itself

• Staff follow the agreed schedule and confirm when the house is locked and the alarm is set.
• The residential officer, if there is one, arrives before dark and stays until the agreed time.
• Family members hold back posts that show they are away.
• The monitoring company knows that any alert that evening should be treated as a likely intrusion, not a false alarm.

The night after

• The house is checked before the principal returns.
• The arrival is planned, with the gate and doors opened and closed quickly.
• Valuables worn at the event go straight into the safe.
• The perimeter and ground floor alarm zones are set once everyone is inside.

The morning after

• Staff walk the property and report anything unusual.
• The residential team writes a short note on the evening.
• The family office records any lessons and updates the protocol.

Technology that helps on away days

Technology is not a substitute for people and planning, but on away days it can extend what a small team can see and do. A few tools are particularly useful.

• Perimeter detection at the rear boundary, so an alert arrives while intruders are still in the garden rather than at the glass.
• Cameras with analytics that distinguish people from animals and moving branches, which reduces false alarms and makes the monitoring team quicker to act on real ones.
• Video verification, so that the monitoring company or residential team can confirm an intrusion and give the police a clear description before they arrive.
• Smart lighting that can make an empty house look occupied without following an obvious timer pattern.
• Alerts when a safe, a gun room door or a key cabinet is opened, so that the people responding know which part of the house the intruders have reached.

Each of these tools depends on someone watching and someone responding. A camera that records a crew in the garden is useful for the investigation afterwards, but it protects the house solely when the alert reaches a person who acts on it in time. The family office should know who that person is on each away day.

When the whole family travels together

Family holidays and major events often take everyone away at once, along with the household staff who travel with them. Those are the periods when a house is likely to be completely empty for days at a time. The away day protocol then becomes a vacant property plan: a residential officer or trusted house sitter, regular patrols, the alarm fully set, and someone checking the property every day. It is also worth arranging for mail, packages and bins to be handled as normal, because a build up of deliveries at the gate is a clear sign that nobody is home.

Talking to insurers before, not after

Insurers of high value homes often have views on alarms, safes and occupancy, and policies sometimes include conditions about how the home is protected when it is unoccupied. The family office should know what those conditions are and make sure the away day protocol meets them. That conversation is far easier before a loss than after one. It is also a good moment to confirm that the inventory of valuables is current, with photographs and documentation, because that is what the police and the insurer will both ask for if something is taken.

Learning from every away day

The value of an away day protocol grows over time, provided the family office learns from each one. After every public absence, someone should spend ten minutes asking a few simple questions. Did the security team receive the date in time? Was the house occupied as planned? Did the alarm and cameras work, and were there any false alerts? Did anyone notice unusual vehicles or people in the days before? Did the return go smoothly? Were any posts made that should have waited?

In many cases the answers will be unremarkable, and that is the point. A record of quiet away days shows that the protocol is working and helps the family keep it going when the risk feels distant. When something does go wrong, the record shows where the gap was. High net worth security is built from that kind of steady attention far more than from equipment or headlines.

The same review is a good moment to look at what is happening in the wider area. If burglaries of public figures are being reported nearby, as the BBC described in Cheshire and la Repubblica described in the Naples metropolitan area, the protocol for the next few away dates should be raised a step. Local police and community security teams are often willing to share general information about patterns, and a protective team that maintains those relationships will hear about them early.

Security for UHNW family offices means owning the calendar

The common thread in all of this is ownership. In many families, the away day risk falls between the travel team, the household manager and the security provider, and nobody is clearly responsible. Security for UHNW family offices works when one person owns the away day list, runs the checklist and makes sure the right people know what is happening. That person does not need to be a security professional. They need to know whom to call and to follow the plan every time, not just after a burglary in the news.

Our article on a 30 day security plan for UHNW family offices sets out how to build that ownership into the office more broadly, and our piece on family office security culture in the household covers how to make these habits stick.

Where MSB Protection in house research and development fits in

At MSB Protection we carry out our own in house research and development on how residential protection performs around predictable absences, including how burglary crews use public calendars, rear gardens and neighboring properties, and how detection, verification and response chains can be tightened on the nights that matter. That work draws on years of protecting family homes in Southern California and internationally. We use it to write away day protocols that family offices can run themselves, with our residential and response teams in support.

A short away day checklist for family offices

• Keep a list of every date when the principal’s absence will be public, and share it with the people who protect the house.
• Decide on purpose who will be in the house, and whether a residential officer is needed.
• Test the alarm chain from detection to response, and know how many minutes it takes.
• Walk the back of the property before each away date.
• Exchange contact details with neighbors and ask them to call if they see anyone in the gardens.
• Secure watches, jewelry, cash and car keys, and move items not needed at home to secure storage.
• Hold back posts and pause deliveries until the family is home.
• Treat the night after a public event as part of the away day.
• Brief staff on locking up, alarm setting and what to report.
• Review each away day afterwards and update the protocol.

Family office high net worth individuals security turns public dates into planned dates

The burglary of a footballer’s home in Cheshire while he played in Italy, and the break in at a Napoli player’s home while he slept the night after a match, are reminders that public calendars are read by more people than fans. For many wealthy families, some absences can never be hidden. Family office high net worth individuals security does not try to hide them. It plans for them, with a calendar the security team can see, a house that is hard to enter from the back, a response measured in minutes, neighbors who know whom to call, valuables and keys out of reach, and a careful return on the night after.

For the wider program that surrounds this work, read our complete 2026 overview of high net worth security. If you would like help building an away day protocol for your family office, our security assessment team can review the home and the calendar, our residential security service can cover the house on the nights that matter, and our executive protection agents can travel with the principal. You can contact us for a confidential conversation.

Sources

• BBC Sport, Fernandes home burgled while in Italy with Man Utd, October 22, 2026
• la Repubblica, Giugliano: thieves break into Napoli player Alisson Santos home while he sleeps, October 25, 2026

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About Michael Braun

Michael Braun is a former Special Unit Operator, former Manager at Gavin de Becker & Associates, and Founder & CEO of MSB Protection, an executive protection and residential security firm serving high-net-worth and ultra-high-net-worth clients.

Braun has built his career at the intersection of specialized protective operations, executive protection, residential security, protective intelligence, and security risk management. His experience spans special-unit operations, leadership within Gavin de Becker & Associates, and the development and oversight of private protection programs within demanding UHNW environments.

He has been recognized by The Top 100 Magazine as a leading CEO in the private security field and is the subject of an upcoming Marquis Who’s Who feature highlighting his leadership and contributions to the profession.

Today, Braun is recognized for his work in executive protection, UHNW estate security, residential protection, protective intelligence, adversarial security assessments, and security auditing throughout Beverly Hills and Southern California.

His work focuses on moving private security beyond simply “providing a body” and toward intelligence-led, risk-based protection programs designed to identify vulnerabilities before an adversary can exploit them.

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If you are a high-net-worth or ultra-high-net-worth individual, family office, estate manager, chief of staff, or executive in Beverly Hills, Los Angeles, Malibu or Southern California, MSB Protection provides executive protection, residential security, 24/7 protection, protective intelligence, medical-readiness planning, and security risk management.

We evaluate the complete security environment, from threat exposure and residential vulnerabilities to personnel, technology, procedures, protective intelligence, and emergency response, and build a program around the risks that actually exist.

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