an hour at the lawyer's office, recalled Mr. Williams at Nationwide.

IN some cases, especially for high-level executives and their families, service can be provided for extended periods. The Steele Foundation says several clients in Los Angeles, San Francisco, New York and Ohio keep security details working all day -- a guard and driver for the husband, and a second set for the wife and children. The agents accompany the families to school, on shopping trips and to restaurants.

When a Steele client goes to dinner, Mr. Kurtz said, the agent ''will go ahead to the restaurant and make sure there are no unreasonable delays, and the client's likes and dislikes are taken care of.'' He says the guard remains in the restaurant while the clients dine, then escorts themout.

If such arrangements sound a little suffocating and invasive, it is because they are. ''Executive protection is the most intrusive form of security,'' Mr. Kurtz said. ''It's a lifestyle change.''

He added that his firm discusses the arrangements with prospective clients. ''It has to be implemented in baby steps,'' he said.

Guards must also be sensitive to a client's whims. John Fiordaliso, a retired police sergeant who runs Gold Shield Executive Services, a security agency in New York, recalled one client from Beverly Hills, Calif., who brought his wife and two teenage sons on a business trip to New York last May. The boys wanted to spend time at a Circuit City store, playing games on Xbox and PlayStation -- without any guards.

The father pretended to go along with their