What Are Advances?
An advance is a security survey of the entire travel itinerary. This includes hotels, restaurants, vehicles, transport, hospitals, doctors, and routes of travel. Advances are performed in advance of the arrival at each city, state, or country that our client visits. Advance work requires a high level of training.
There is no one advance fits all, and the amount of time it takes can vary depending on the level of external and internal threat, stability, and crime in the area. In some cases, protective agents will be on the ground, running advances days before the client’s arrival.
Why Are Advances Important?
Advances are the most important aspect of executive protection because they can prevent harm from coming to the client. Not only does it ensure the safety of the client, but it also ensures their peace of mind, which is incredibly valuable when they’re traveling to a place they’ve never been for an important business meeting.
What’s Involved in Executive Protection Advances?
Understanding Potential Danger
Before traveling, billionaires and their executive protection teams should know and understand the danger of the place they’re traveling to, especially any areas that are considered high risk. Traveling to a location deemed high risk can put the safety of the client in danger, increasing the risk of kidnapping, injury, and theft, unless advances are run beforehand.
An executive protection company does their due diligence learning all that they can about the area in which you’re traveling and may even go there days beforehand so ensure the safety of the client.
For example, if there are riots or civil unrest, this is something an executive protection team will know beforehand so that they can avoid any potentially harmful situations once the billionaire lands. It also allows them to map escape routes that may be used in case a situation or violence breaks out.
Encryption
Encryption may be another part of the pre-planning advances when a billionaire is traveling. Encrypted communication allows the client to communicate with the outside world anonymously. This is incredibly important if you’re traveling to a country where you may not have the biggest fans.
Encryption keeps your data secure and protects sensitive information like your business communications, and most importantly, your location. Criminals won’t be able to harm you if they can’t find you. Your cell phone and email account will remain anonymous.
Making Travel Arrangements
Your executive protection agents will be familiar with the destination’s security threats to ensure total safety and security. Making travel arrangements, an executive protection team ensures that the client is well protected no matter where they go.
Not only does this ensure that the client is safe on their way to important meetings or gatherings, it helps them get there on time. Route planning also involves escape route planning. In doing this, executive protection agents can get their client out of a dangerous situation should it arise much more efficiently and effectively.
Landing in an unfamiliar place, whether it be a state or a country, means that the client has very little knowledge about the area. Eventually, they’ll have to make their way to a new destination, like a meeting or their hotel room. Wherever they go, a billionaire may be subject to threats along the road if routes haven’t been mapped out.
Whether on foot or in a car, you never want to be stuck in a situation that could be dangerous. You’ll need escape routes to ensure your total and complete safety. Executive protection agents know the area well from their advance work and will have multiple backup plans at their disposal to help you get to your destination without being harmed.
Without these arrangements in place, clients could be put in harm’s way unnecessarily. However, with the right pre-planning, attacks and harm can be prevented.
Medical Emergency Preparation
While no one plans to have a medical emergency, situations do arise. Because of this, it’s always important to have a plan in place just in case a client has a heart attack or has a health issue that needs to be dealt with as soon as possible. Part of advance work includes gathering information about the nearest and best facilities to ensure not only the client’s safety but their health. Doing this advance work can be life-saving, and it’s completely necessary.
Protection agents find the nearest hospitals to where the client will be at all times, so that no matter where you are, you have the route already mapped out should a health issue come up.
Your health and safety is the top priority, so if you have a medical concern that will require a specialist, your executive protection team will make sure they know the specialists in the area where you will be traveling to. They’ll also send your medical records ahead of time so that there is zero wasted time once you’ve made it to the hospital.
Even if you don’t have a medical issue, executive protection agents map out routes to the nearest hospitals to ensure that you can get the help you need when you need it.
It’s also worth mentioning that executive protection agents have EMT training so that they can help get you through situations that are more minor before you make it to the hospital. This is another life-saving aspect of our work that we believe is incredibly important for each agent to have.
The key to executive protection is prevention, which comes in the form of doing advance work that can save lives. Being proactive instead of reactive is the key to ensuring the safety of our clients at all times.
