Close Protection and Executive Security in Switzerland

Protection is quoted per assignment, because the figure depends on how many officers, over how many hours, for how long, and whether vehicles are included. The structure is consistent. Close protection is quoted per officer per day against a minimum engagement. Security-trained chauffeurs are quoted as a premium over a standard chauffeur booking. Residential and ongoing arrangements are quoted monthly, and advance work or assessment is quoted separately. Every quote is fixed in writing before anyone is deployed. It is worth knowing that a security-trained chauffeur costs considerably less than a protection detail and is the proportionate answer for most clients. We will tell you which applies to your situation before you ask us to quote for the larger one.

Most people do not, and we will say so. Switzerland has low rates of violent crime, and for the majority of visiting clients the proportionate answer is a security-trained chauffeur rather than a protection detail. Protection becomes appropriate when there is a specific and identifiable factor: public recognition, press attention, a fixated individual, a known dispute, a profile that attracts attention in a particular context, or the routine transport of valuables. Tell us the situation and we will give you an honest assessment, including that you do not need us.

Yes, and regulation is cantonal rather than federal. Geneva, Vaud, Valais, Neuchâtel, Fribourg and Jura apply the Concordat sur les entreprises de sécurité, under which both the company and each individual security agent require prior authorisation from the canton, subject to conditions on nationality or EU/EFTA status, civil rights, honourability and examination. The German-speaking cantons, including Zurich, regulate separately and the requirements differ between them.

Usually not. Weapons carried by private security personnel fall under separate Swiss weapons legislation and require their own authorisation, and the overwhelming majority of close protection work in Switzerland is unarmed. In practice, the protective value comes from planning, positioning and avoidance rather than from a firearm.

A close protection officer protects the person. A security-trained chauffeur protects the journey. A security driver plans routes and alternates, controls the vehicle and the arrival, is trained in defensive driving, and provides a meaningful layer of security without any visible protective presence. A protection officer accompanies the principal on foot, into venues and through public space. Many clients need only the driver, some need both, and we will tell you which applies.

Yes, and this is the service we are built around. We operate our own fleet and our own officers, so the vehicle, the driver and the protection plan come from one organisation and one briefing, rather than from a protection firm and a subcontracted car that have never spoken to each other.

Discreet enough that in most engagements nobody present knows protection is there. For the majority of our clients that means plain clothes, unremarkable vehicles, an officer who travels as part of the group, and no visible apparatus. Visible protection is sometimes the point, at a public event, deterrence is the function, but that is a deliberate choice, not a default.

Yes, and family coverage is frequently the actual requirement. We provide protection for spouses and children separately from the principal, including school runs, activities and holidays, with officers chosen for being unobtrusive around children.

Yes. Where a client or family office already has a security lead or an established team, we work to their plan. Supplying officers, vehicles and local knowledge in Switzerland rather than duplicating a structure that already works.

Switzerland is where we operate directly. For travel elsewhere we coordinate with vetted partner firms in the destination and provide continuity through the journey, and we are straightforward about where we are providing the team ourselves and where we are coordinating someone else's.

It stays with the people who need it to do the work. Every officer signs a confidentiality agreement, assessment documents are shared only with the team deployed, we do not confirm or deny who our clients are, and we retain operational records only as long as needed for the assignment. We handle personal data under the revised Swiss Federal Act on Data Protection.