Standard policies limit the amount of liability coverage paid out. This is why many of our clients purchase an affordable umbrella policy, which protects against a loss due to a catastrophic liability loss. It offers additional protection beyond your standard policies and helps to eliminate gaps in your liability coverage.
What if? What if your teenage son causes a severe accident? The vehicle he hits has several injured passengers. You've purchased higher bodily injury limits for your vehicle but the injury claims in a case like this will quickly exhaust your limits.What now? A Personal Umbrella Policy is the added layer of protection that you need.
Personal Umbrella Insurance
A personal umbrella policy protects you, your spouse and all other relatives living in your household.
This means you can help safeguard your possessions, your savings, and your future earnings.
Personal Umbrella Insurance provides protection over and above your basic liability policies for homeowners, automobile, boat owners, renters or motor homes (must be listed on your policy). It also provides personal injury coverage including if suits are brought against you for libel, slander, defamation of character, wrongful eviction, invasion of privacy and more. This includes any additional defense costs not covered under your other liability policies.
Personal Umbrellas do not extend coverage over any business or commercial exposure.
Commercial Umbrella Insurance
A big difference between property and liability risks is that you can put a value on the property you have at risk, but there is no way to predict the amount of damages you could be required to pay as the result of a catastrophic accident. If, for example, you were found liable in a school bus accident that injured children, the damages could be in the millions of dollars.
Umbrella Liability—also known as Excess Liability Insurance—provides extra protection for catastrophic events. The primary policies are called “underlying” policies and are specifically listed, along with their limits, on the umbrella policy. Typically, the underlying policies are your primary general liability, auto liability and employer’s liability policies. The umbrella coverage starts to pay when a covered loss exhausts the primary policy’s per occurrence limit.
Most umbrella policies exclude employment practices liability, professional liability, product recall coverage and coverage for asbestos-related claims, pollution, war and terrorism.
Do you understand the potential need for an umbrella policy? We do & we can help. Contact us.