S&P 500 Companies Spending Record Amounts on Bodyguards

S&P 500 Chiefs Turn to Bodyguards, Home Security as Risks Grow

Companies are spending record amounts to keep their top officers physically safe, reflecting an era of heightened security concerns.

More than 34% of S&P 500 companies mentioned bodyguards, home security, safety conscious transportation, and other personal security measures as executive perks in their 2025 proxy filings—a 21% jump from a year before—according to data through the end of April from executive intelligence firm Equilar. The median amount spent also increased nearly 10%, to $108,714, for the same period.

The fatal December shooting of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson helped drive increased security spending. But the trend predated that incident, with political division, economic strife, and a wider acceptance of violence as a means to social change all contributing, some executive security professionals say.

There’s a Good Chance Crypto Is Spreading in Your Retirement Account

In fact, cryptocurrency may already be snuggled in your nest egg, whether you know it or not. I pointed out last year that many retirement portfolios — including my own — contained Bitcoin indirectly, through broad, diversified index funds that owned a company then known as MicroStrategy. It changed its name in February to just plain Strategy, which its founder, Michael J. Saylor, said was better for the brand. The company runs a declining software business, but it keeps growing anyway. Its main assets, if you want to call them that, are Bitcoin and market frenzy.

What’s more, just last month the S&P 500 welcomed into its ranks Coinbase, a company that owns Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies outright and, more important, serves as a major trading platform and repository for all manner of digital assets. In addition, Tesla, the automaker led by Elon Musk and an important member of the S&P 500, owns more than $1 billion in Bitcoin.

Scores of other publicly traded companies have followed in Strategy’s footsteps and now hold Bitcoin or other cryptocurrencies on their balance sheets, in addition to traditional assets like cash or bonds….