Town & Country - The Latest High-End Real Estate Amenity? The Luxury Safe Room

Town and Country Magazine - Sept '16   

Disaster preparedness is a big deal to the one percent.

In 2009, Catherine Hooper started the firm Black Umbrella, which works with high-net-worth families to come up with individualized disaster survival plans and create prestocked kits of essentials. "Our clients know what it takes to gain, and they know how easy it is to lose," says Joel Smernoff, the company's current chairman. "They buy a lot of insurance. We're just a different kind of insurance."