High Net Worth Security: Why Saving $6 an Hour on Private Security for a Wealthy Family Can Cost Far More
This is a cautionary tale for anyone responsible for high net worth security, personal security for the wealthy, or private security for a high net worth family: when protection is purchased primarily by comparing hourly rates, the least expensive decision can quickly become the most costly one.
For family offices evaluating security providers, the hourly rate is often one of the first numbers placed side by side.
That is understandable.
It is also one of the easiest ways to make the wrong decision.
Billionaire security and security for high net worth individuals are not commodity services. The family is not buying interchangeable labor by the hour. It is buying judgment, training, discretion, physical capability, intelligence, preparedness and, ultimately, the ability of another human being to make the right decision when something goes wrong.
A difference of a few dollars per hour can look substantial on a spreadsheet.
But what if that difference exists because one security company invests significantly more in its personnel, retains career professionals, provides extensive training and benefits, maintains higher physical and professional standards, and develops capabilities that the lower-cost provider simply does not have?
We recently experienced exactly that situation.
The difference was approximately $6 per hour.
What happened afterward illustrates a problem we see repeatedly in the world of high net worth security.
A Family That Had Already Seen What Professional Executive Protection Looks Like
An estate manager representing an ultra-high-net-worth family approached MSB Protection for security services.
Before discussions about residential protection began, our team had already performed significant executive protection work for the family, including accompanying them to one of the world’s most prestigious international awards events.
It was the type of environment where effective executive protection requires much more than standing next to someone who is wealthy.
There were credentialing requirements, restricted areas, movements involving prominent attendees, complicated access points, event personnel, transportation considerations, media, other security teams and constantly changing conditions.
Our team was able to leverage advance work, professional relationships and our broader network to obtain access where it was operationally necessary. At one point, our protectors were permitted into a highly restricted area where access was unusually limited.
The family noticed.
More importantly, their representatives saw what professional executive protection actually looks like when it is done correctly.
It is not necessarily dramatic.
Much of the work happens before the principal realizes there could have been a problem.
A professional protector is constantly asking questions.
Where are we going next?
Who controls the location?
Where is the vehicle?
What changed from the advance?
Who is approaching?
Where is our exit?
What information do we have that other people do not?
What information might someone else have about us?
Who needs to know the family’s movement?
Who does not?
What happens if the planned route becomes unusable?
What medical capability is available?
What is happening outside the venue?
Are demonstrations forming?
Has the threat environment changed?
That level of thinking is what personal security for high net worth individuals should provide.
Following the executive protection work, discussions began about establishing residential security for the family.
That was when the conversation changed.
The Other Security Company Was $6 an Hour Cheaper
Another security provider submitted a lower rate.
The difference was approximately $6 per hour.
The family office representatives were candid with us. They preferred working with our company. They had experienced the quality of our executive protection operation firsthand.
We were essentially told that if we reduced our price by approximately six dollars per hour, we would likely receive the residential protection detail.
We declined.
That wasn’t stubbornness.
There was a reason our price was our price.
At MSB Protection, our business model is built around professional protectors rather than simply filling security posts with the least expensive personnel legally qualified to stand them.
We spend heavily on training.
We provide our protectors with employer-funded Anthem Blue Cross Gold PPO medical coverage for the employee, spouse and children.
We invest in continuing education.
We maintain internal research and development capabilities focused on improving security operations and understanding emerging threats.
We expect physical capability.
We expect discretion.
We expect our personnel to understand that protecting an ultra-high-net-worth family is their profession, not something they happen to do between unrelated jobs.
Those things cost money.
The answer from the client’s representatives was essentially:
Why not just hire a few off-duty or retired police officers like the other company and lower the price?
I understand why someone might ask that question.
I was a police officer myself.
But being a police officer and being a professional executive protector are not the same occupation.
Police Experience Can Be Valuable. It Is Not a Substitute for Executive Protection Training.
There are outstanding police officers who later become outstanding executive protection professionals.
There are also military veterans, firefighters, EMTs and people from entirely different backgrounds who become outstanding protectors.
The mistake is assuming that a previous profession automatically establishes competency in a different one.
A police officer is trained for a law-enforcement mission.
An executive protector has a protective mission.
There is overlap, but the objectives are different.
Police officers investigate crimes, conduct traffic stops, make arrests, respond to calls for service, enforce laws and manage public-safety incidents.
A professional protector’s preferred outcome is often that none of those things ever become necessary.
We do not want to win the confrontation.
Whenever reasonably possible, we want the protectee to never encounter the confrontation.
That requires protective intelligence, advance work, route planning, threat recognition, behavioral observation, communication, discretion, contingency planning and an understanding of the individual family.
In residential protection, it also requires understanding the household.
Who belongs there?
Who doesn’t?
Which vendors are expected?
What vehicles normally arrive?
What does unusual activity look like?
Who are the children?
Who are their friends?
Who picks them up?
Which employee was recently terminated?
Which family member is traveling?
When are contractors expected?
What does the principal want security to handle directly, and what should immediately involve law enforcement?
Those competencies are developed.
A badge—or a former badge—does not automatically confer them.
The $6 Difference Was Really $52,560 Per Year
Six dollars sounds small.
Multiply it across one continuously staffed security position:
$6 × 24 hours × 365 days = $52,560 per year.
For a family whose wealth may be measured in hundreds of millions or billions of dollars, the procurement decision had effectively become whether approximately $52,560 per year justified moving from the security provider they preferred to the cheaper alternative for that position.
That is where family offices need to be careful.
The question should not simply be:
Who charges less?
The better question is:
What changed in the security program to make one provider $52,560 cheaper?
Did training disappear?
Did benefits disappear?
Did recruiting standards change?
Did experienced protectors become occasional contractors?
Did supervision decrease?
Did medical capabilities change?
Did turnover increase?
Did the provider stop paying for continuing education?
Did physical standards change?
Did management support disappear?
Did the company simply decide to accept a smaller margin?
That last possibility certainly exists. Price differences are not proof of quality differences.
But a sophisticated family office should find out.
Because security pricing does not exist in a vacuum.
Someone, somewhere, is paying for that difference.
Sometimes it is the security company.
Sometimes it is the protector.
Eventually, it can be the client.
Then Came the Ocean Question
The family initially proceeded with the lower-cost security arrangement.
What happened next illustrates why high net worth security must be designed around the actual life of the family.
The residence was located directly around an ocean environment, and children were part of the household.
One of the assigned protectors reportedly acknowledged to the family that if one of the children entered the ocean and began drowning when lifeguards were unavailable, he would not be able to help because he was not a strong enough swimmer.
There is something important I want to make clear.
I don’t fault the protector for admitting his limitation.
In fact, acknowledging that limitation was better than pretending to possess a capability he didn’t have.
The problem occurred much earlier.
Why was the protection program not designed around the environment in which the protector was being placed?
That is the real issue.
If you are providing private security for a high net worth family, you are not protecting an abstract asset called “the client.”
You are protecting human beings living actual lives.
A family living on the coast may have children swimming in the ocean.
Another family may spend significant time aboard yachts.
Another skis.
Another has horses.
Another frequently travels through politically unstable regions.
Another owns remote properties where emergency medical response may take significant time.
Another has young children constantly moving between school, sports, friends’ houses and extracurricular activities.
The protective requirements are different.
A protector does not need to possess every conceivable capability.
But the security program should identify foreseeable risks and ensure appropriate capabilities exist somewhere within the protective system.
That is what individualized security for high net worth individuals should mean.
Residential Security Is Not Simply Someone Standing at the House
This is where the security industry frequently creates its own problem.
Executive protection is treated as specialized work.
Residential security is treated as guard work.
That distinction may make sense organizationally, but it can become dangerous operationally.
Consider what occurs at a residence.
The family sleeps there.
Children live there.
Household employees work there.
Packages arrive.
Food deliveries arrive.
Contractors arrive.
Domestic staff come and go.
Friends visit.
Vehicles enter.
Service technicians need access.
The principal’s schedule can often be inferred from what happens around the property.
A residential security team therefore sits directly at the intersection of physical security, information security, access control, emergency response and protective intelligence.
Recent cases demonstrate what residential attackers may look like.
In March 2026, federal prosecutors alleged that a group targeting a residence in Winnetka, Illinois, used one participant posing as a food-delivery driver to get an occupant to open the door. Armed attackers then allegedly entered, restrained a victim and demanded access to a safe, computer and cryptocurrency accounts.
U.S. Department of Justice: Federal Investigation Into Violent Home Invasion
In another federal case announced in May 2026, prosecutors alleged that defendants traveled from Tennessee to target cryptocurrency owners in San Francisco, San Jose, Sunnyvale and Los Angeles.
According to the indictment, they allegedly posed as delivery personnel to gain or attempt to gain access to residences, then used firearms, duct tape and zip ties. One victim was allegedly forced at gunpoint to access cryptocurrency accounts from which approximately $6.5 million was transferred.
The defendants are presumed innocent unless proven guilty.
Those cases are not cited to suggest every wealthy family faces a cryptocurrency kidnapping conspiracy.
They demonstrate something more fundamental.
The person approaching a wealthy family’s front door may not look threatening.
The threat may look like a delivery.
And the person making the access decision may have only seconds to determine whether something is wrong.
That is residential protection.
What Successful Residential Security Looks Like Is Often Boring
A contrasting public example occurred in Malibu in September 2026.
According to law enforcement and a spokesperson for former Vice President Kamala Harris, an individual illegally entered Harris and Doug Emhoff’s property while they were away. Private security personnel detected the person and intervened before the individual reached the home. The Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department then responded.
Nothing catastrophic happened.
That is precisely the point.
Successful protection often produces an uneventful story.
Detection.
Intervention.
Communication.
Law-enforcement response.
No breach of the residence.
No confrontation with the principals.
No injury.
No dramatic rescue.
For personal security for the wealthy, boring is frequently the desired outcome.
Then Another Problem Appeared: Discretion
We were later told something else about members of the lower-cost protection team.
According to the information provided to us, individuals assigned to the detail were discussing their security work socially at Los Angeles nightlife venues and talking about upcoming high-profile visitors.
Again, the larger lesson matters more than the individual story.
A residential protector gradually learns an extraordinary amount about a family.
The protector may know when the principal leaves.
When the spouse travels.
When the children go to school.
Which celebrities visit.
Which business leaders visit.
Which gate is malfunctioning.
Where the cameras are.
When construction workers will arrive.
When the house will be empty.
Which vehicle belongs to which family member.
Which family member has medical problems.
Which events the family will attend.
Which security procedures are routinely bypassed because they are inconvenient.
A protector may eventually know more about the operational life of a wealthy family than almost anyone outside the household.
That makes discretion a security capability.
It is not merely good manners.
A protector who discusses the family in a nightclub does not need to intentionally betray the client to create risk.
The wrong person simply needs to hear the right piece of information.
Professional billionaire security requires recognizing that information about the protectee is itself an asset that needs protection.
High Net Worth Security Cannot Be Separated Into Cheap Pieces
This challenge appears to extend well beyond individual anecdotes.
In June 2026, Presage Global and Nines released research based on responses from more than 100 estate managers, family office executives, chiefs of staff and residential security professionals.
The findings deserve attention from anyone responsible for family office security for high net worth individuals.
Households described as using fragmented approaches to security reported a 62% financial-loss incident rate, compared with 25% for integrated teams.
The study also reported that family resistance was considered the leading barrier to improving security by 49% of respondents, while cost was cited by 28%.
The report also found substantial training gaps. According to the published results, 62% of respondents received no formal annual security training, while 74% never refreshed a background check after the initial hire.
Those numbers should cause family offices to reconsider what they mean when they say they “have security.”
A collection of security-related vendors is not necessarily a security program.
A camera company, alarm company, off-duty officer, cybersecurity consultant, executive protection agent and estate manager may each perform their individual jobs competently while still leaving enormous gaps between them.
Who sees the entire threat picture?
Who owns the risk?
Who decides that a change in the principal’s online exposure should alter residential procedures?
Who tells the executive protection team that a suspicious person approached the residence twice last week?
Who informs the residential team that a terminated employee made concerning statements?
Who determines whether a new romantic partner, contractor, aircraft itinerary or children’s activity changes the protective posture?
That is why integrated high net worth security matters.
The Cheapest Protector Can Become the Most Expensive Person on the Property
Family offices are sophisticated buyers.
They negotiate aircraft.
Real estate.
Insurance.
Legal services.
Investment management.
Construction.
Household staffing.
Technology.
Those negotiations can involve enormous sums of money.
There is nothing wrong with negotiating security either.
In fact, a family office should demand transparency and accountability from a security provider.
But security procurement becomes dangerous when the hourly rate becomes a substitute for evaluating capability.
A family office evaluating competing providers should understand the differences behind the numbers.
| Easy Question | Better Question |
|---|---|
| What is your hourly rate? | What capabilities are included in that rate? |
| Are your people former police or military? | What specific protection training and experience do they have? |
| Are they armed? | How are judgment, firearms proficiency and decision-making evaluated? |
| Can you fill the schedule? | Can you retain a stable team the family can trust? |
| Do you conduct background checks? | Are personnel continuously evaluated after hiring? |
| Do you provide residential security? | How does residential security integrate with executive protection and intelligence? |
| Do your protectors receive training? | How much paid training do they actually receive each year? |
| Do you have supervisors? | How frequently are standards audited in the field? |
| Can you handle an emergency? | Which foreseeable emergencies have you specifically prepared for at this property? |
| Can you match another company’s rate? | What would have to change operationally for you to match it? |
That last question may be the most important.
If a security provider can immediately reduce its price by 10%, ask why.
Maybe there is legitimate negotiating room.
Or perhaps the provider intends to change the caliber of personnel assigned to the account.
The family deserves to know.
Professional Protectors Need a Career Structure
One reason MSB Protection invests substantially in employee benefits is simple: we want professional protectors to be able to treat protection as a profession.
If a protector has a spouse and children, health insurance matters.
Stable employment matters.
Training matters.
Predictable standards matter.
A company cannot tell employees that they are responsible for the safety of extraordinarily high-value families while simultaneously treating those employees as disposable labor.
That disconnect eventually shows up operationally.
When a security position is merely another side job, the individual’s primary professional identity remains somewhere else.
That does not automatically make the person irresponsible or incompetent.
But it does influence recruiting, availability, commitment, continuity and development.
A career protector thinks differently.
The objective becomes mastery of the profession.
Protective intelligence gets studied.
Medical skills are maintained.
Physical conditioning matters.
Advances become second nature.
Mistakes become lessons.
Emerging threats are followed.
The individual develops an understanding of how wealthy families actually operate.
That institutional knowledge compounds over time.
So does trust.
Technology Does Not Fix a Weak Human Security Program
Ultra-high-net-worth estates increasingly have extraordinary technology.
License-plate recognition.
Thermal cameras.
Analytics.
Radar.
Access-control systems.
Biometrics.
Perimeter detection.
Drones.
Integrated alarms.
Secure communications.
Artificial intelligence.
Those systems are useful.
We invest heavily in technology ourselves, including internal research and development.
But technology does not eliminate the human component.
A camera can show that someone is approaching the gate.
Someone still needs to determine what that means.
Software can identify an anomaly.
Someone needs to decide whether it is significant.
A license-plate system can identify a vehicle.
Someone needs to understand why that vehicle matters.
An alarm can report that a door has opened.
Someone needs to respond.
The strongest security programs combine technology with well-trained humans.
The weakest ones sometimes use technology to create the appearance of capability while minimizing the cost of the people responsible for interpreting and acting on it.
“You Get What You Pay For” Is Too Simple
There is an old saying that you get what you pay for.
I don’t think that is quite precise enough.
Expensive security can still be poor security.
A high rate does not prove competence.
A prestigious résumé does not prove competence.
A former government title does not prove competence.
A military background does not prove competence.
A police background does not prove competence.
A tactical appearance certainly does not prove competence.
Family offices should not choose the highest bidder any more automatically than they should choose the lowest.
The proper objective is value relative to the family’s actual risk and requirements.
Sometimes a family does not need a large security program.
Sometimes technology and better procedures can reduce staffing requirements.
Sometimes one highly capable protector provides more value than several poorly selected personnel.
Sometimes an estate requires continuous staffing.
Sometimes it does not.
A serious security provider should be willing to say all of those things.
The objective should not be maximizing billable hours.
The objective should be designing the appropriate protective system.
The Family Eventually Came Back
After concerns developed with the lower-cost security arrangement, we were approached again and asked for another bid.
We declined to change our number.
Our original price was not an opening negotiating position built around the assumption that we would eventually reduce the quality of the team.
It represented what we believed was necessary to provide the level of service we were willing to put our name behind.
This is an important lesson for both security companies and family offices.
There will always be someone willing to provide security for less.
There should be.
Competition is healthy.
But there is a point at which continuously compressing the hourly rate changes what is being purchased.
The uniform may look the same.
The person may still be licensed.
A box on a family-office spreadsheet may still say Security: Covered.
But capability may have changed substantially.
What Should a High Net Worth Family Actually Be Buying?
The best private security for a high net worth family is not defined by how intimidating the protectors look.
It should be defined by whether the protective program reduces risk while allowing the family to live normally.
The team should understand the principals.
The children.
The residences.
The routines.
The threat environment.
The household staff.
The family’s tolerance for security.
The locations they frequent.
Their public exposure.
Their business exposure.
Their digital exposure.
Their medical risks.
Their travel.
And the emergencies that are reasonably foreseeable within their lifestyle.
From there, the security provider can determine the required capabilities.
That may include executive protection, residential security, protective intelligence, travel security, medical capability, security driving, physical-security systems, cyber coordination, privacy protection or specialized skills unique to the family’s environment.
That is high net worth security.
It isn’t one product.
It is a system.
The Real Question Is Not Whether Security Costs $6 More
For a billionaire, centimillionaire or other ultra-high-net-worth family, the financial value of the assets being protected can be enormous.
But wealth isn’t actually the most important part of the equation.
You cannot put a financial value on a child.
You cannot restore a principal’s life after a catastrophic event.
You cannot always undo the disclosure of private information.
You cannot reverse every reputational incident.
You cannot guarantee that a home invasion, stalking incident, medical emergency or security breach will end favorably simply because law enforcement will eventually respond.
Professional protection exists in the space before those consequences occur.
That does not mean every wealthy family should spend unlimited amounts of money on security.
They should not.
It means the security budget should be tied to risk, requirements and capability rather than an arbitrary race toward the lowest hourly rate.
In our case, the difference was six dollars.
Approximately $52,560 annually for one continuously staffed position.
That number was easy to calculate.
The harder question was much more important:
What capability are you willing to give up to save it?
That is the question every family office should ask before selecting personal security for the wealthy, billionaire security, residential protection, or any security service for high net worth individuals.
Because when something actually happens, the family will not care which company was six dollars cheaper.
They will care whether the person standing between them and the problem was capable of doing the job.
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’s work centers on executive protection, UHNW estate security, residential protection, protective intelligence, adversarial security assessments, and security auditing throughout Beverly Hills and Southern California.
His approach 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.
Articles published by Braun draw on direct experience protecting high-net-worth and ultra-high-net-worth individuals and families, managing protective operations, evaluating security programs, and training professional protectors. Client-identifying information and operational details are intentionally omitted or generalized where necessary to preserve confidentiality.
Looking for UHNW Security Services?
If you are a high-net-worth or ultra-high-net-worth individual, family office, estate manager, chief of staff, or executive looking for a top-tier UHNW security provider, MSB Protection specializes in executive protection, residential security, protective intelligence, and comprehensive security risk management for high-net-worth and ultra-high-net-worth clients.
Our approach goes far beyond simply placing a protector at a residence or beside a principal.
We evaluate the complete security environment—from threat exposure and residential vulnerabilities to personnel, technology, procedures, protective intelligence, and emergency response—to build a program around the risks that actually exist.
Our private protectors undergo a rigorous and continuous training program. In addition to bi-monthly in-person training, our personnel receive ongoing assignments and instruction in protection theory, residential security, protective intelligence, threat recognition, emergency response, and the principles governing professional private protection.
We do not build our teams around personnel simply looking for an off-duty “security gig.”
Every MSB protector is selected, trained, and continuously developed specifically for the profession of private security and executive protection.
Our expectation is simple: