The recent fatal shooting of UnitedHealthcare’s CEO Brian Thompson has heightened concerns about executive security. This is quickly becoming a topic of discussion for Compensation Committees in 2025, particularly for more high-profile businesses operating in industries that are subject to more public criticism (e.g., healthcare, entertainment, social media, defense, technology, etc.).

Executive security is a fairly common perquisite, given that providing security services – such as home security systems and installation, security guards, and associated tax gross-ups – to high-profile executives may align with the company’s risk-mitigation strategy. While the company may view spending on executive security as a business expense, proxy disclosure rules require companies to disclose the value of perquisites associated with security provisions for personal travel or a personal residence.

CAP analyzed a group of the 500 largest public companies by revenue in the United States on the prevalence and scale of security benefits offered in the most recently completed fiscal year to companies’ Named Executive Officers (NEOs). The dataset was provided by Equilar, an executive intelligence firm.

Looking back retrospectively, security perquisites are a minority practice, with 28% of the 500 companies providing security services as part of their perquisite program. Further, just 19% of the group disclosed total security perk spending. Companies that did not disclose spending either did not utilize the perk in 2023 or did not exceed the required reporting threshold ($10,000 for any individual’s security spend).

The median disclosed cost of security perquisites for the full executive team (NEOs and CEOs) was $49K.1 Spending by company varied greatly, with the lowest reported cost at $288 and the highest reported cost at $6.8M. The average was $414K.

Among the 500 companies, 26% provide a security perquisite to the CEO. Of those companies, 65% disclosed the specific cost for 2023. The sectors with the highest prevalence of providing security perquisites to their CEOs were Communication Services (43%), Information Technology (42%), Financials (33%), Utilities (27%), and Consumer Discretionary (25%).

Among the 500 companies, 15% provide a security perquisite to non-CEO NEOs. Of that 15%, 67% disclosed the specific cost for 2023. The sectors with the highest prevalence of providing security perquisites to any non-CEO NEOs were Utilities (19%), Energy (18%), Information Technology (18%), and Consumer Discretionary (18%).

Across all industries, the median disclosed cost of CEO security perquisites was $96K. The average cost was $656K. Spending by industry and by company varied greatly, with the lowest reported CEO at $224 and the highest reported CEO at $23M (which happened to be in the Information Technology industry)

Among the 10 companies that spent the most on their CEO security perquisites, the median cost was $1.8M. The most commonly provided perquisites were home and personal security systems (90%), followed by security personnel (40%). Two of these companies also extended security coverage to a spouse or immediate family members. 6 of these 10 companies were in the Communication Services industry. The remaining 4 were in the Information Technology, Consumer Staples, and Consumer Discretionary industries.

Across all industries, the median disclosed cost of NEO security perquisites (excluding CEOs) was $15K. The average cost was $414K. Spending by industry and by company varied greatly, with the lowest reported cost at $288 and the highest reported cost at $3M.

As modern threats to companies evolve, more companies may look to implement and enhance their security programs. However, our findings suggest that prevalence and scale vary among sectors and individual companies, so best practices should still be tailored to each company’s individual business needs and situation. A frequent first step is to conduct a security study with a third-party security consultant to inform the development of an executive security policy.

Data for this analysis was provided by Equilar.com.