The chances of losing a lawsuit for a sum bigger than what your existing insurance can pay are slim, but if you ever find yourself in that circumstance, you could lose everything you own. Umbrella insurance is designed to keep you from ever having to experience that horror. We’ll take a deeper look at how an umbrella policy works, who needs it, how much it costs, and what it won’t cover in the sections below.
KEY TAKEAWAYS
- Umbrella insurance is a sort of personal liability insurance that covers claims in addition to the coverage provided by a homeowner’s, auto, or watercraft policy.
- Umbrella insurance protects not only the policyholder but also other family members or household members.
- The policyholder’s property is not protected by umbrella insurance, which covers injury to others or damage to their assets.
- In comparison to other types of insurance, umbrella insurance is fairly affordable.
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- To learn more about how umbrella insurance works, watch the video below.
What Is Umbrella Insurance?
Umbrella insurance is a sort of personal liability insurance that can come in handy if you’re held accountable for a claim that exceeds the limits of your homeowner’s or auto insurance. If you own a boat, umbrella insurance will cover the gaps left by your vessel’s liability insurance.
Libel, defamation, and false imprisonment are just a few of the liability claims that umbrella insurance can cover. In addition, if you own rental property, umbrella insurance extends your liability coverage beyond your renter’s policy.
How Does an Umbrella Policy Work?
If your homeowner’s insurance or auto insurance weren’t enough, an umbrella policy may cover the following incidents:
- Your dog bolts from the house and savagely attacks a passing neighbour out for a stroll. Your neighbour files a lawsuit against you for medical expenses, lost pay, and pain and suffering.
- In a brawl at school, your daughter hits another girl, breaking her nose. The girl’s parents have filed a lawsuit against you.
- You cause a ten-car collision, and your auto insurance property damage coverage is insufficient to replace the automobiles of all ten accident victims. Your personal liability coverage is also insufficient to cover their medical expenses.
- For a field trip lunch, you send sandwiches to your son’s school. Several pupils get food sickness, and their parents file a lawsuit against you.
- While you’re out of town, your teenager arranges a party at your place. Someone brings booze to the party, and on the way home, one of the visitors is detained for drunk driving. You’ve been sued.
- Malicious prosecution, wrongful entry, breach of privacy, and other risks are all covered by umbrella plans.
Umbrella insurance protects not just the insured, but also additional members of their family or home, as you can see from these instances.
So, if your youngster isn’t the best driver, you can rest easy knowing that your umbrella coverage will cover the medical expenditures of the affected parties if your teen is judged to be at fault in a catastrophic accident. However, make sure you understand how your policy defines a household member to ensure you receive the coverage you require.
You may have also observed that, while umbrella insurance provides coverage in addition to your homeowners and auto insurance, the incident does not have to occur on your property or in your vehicle for it to be covered by your umbrella insurance. You’re also covered internationally, with the exception of properties and cars owned under the laws of other countries.
Do You Need Umbrella Insurance?
The decision to purchase umbrella insurance is surely fraught with anxiety. Many insurance companies argue that you need it since we live in a litigious society where anyone may sue you for anything and financially ruin you. Personal responsibility horror stories abound in the headlines, with juries awarding multimillion-dollar judgements to victims that individuals were forced to pay. However, how likely are you to find yourself in a position like this? Is umbrella insurance really necessary?
As a general guideline, if the total worth of your assets, including ordinary checking and savings accounts, retirement and college savings and investment accounts, and home equity, exceeds the limits of your auto or homeowner’s liability, you should consider purchasing umbrella insurance. The premise behind this suggestion is that you should have enough liability insurance to completely protect your assets in the event of a lawsuit.
However, because jury awards can easily surpass insurance policy limitations, this proposal does not make sense. The key question to ask oneself is: am I in danger of being sued? Because everyone is, umbrella insurance makes sense in some ways.
For the added piece of mind, it’s a little amount to pay.
However, certain people are more prone than others to require an umbrella coverage. You’re an even better candidate for an umbrella insurance if you engage in some activity that places you at a higher risk of acquiring excessive liability. Owning property, renting it out, employing home staff, having a trampoline or hot tub, throwing huge parties, and being a well-known public figure are all risk factors for personal liability.
Having a teenage driver in the family, as well as owning a dog or a home with a swimming pool puts you in greater danger. Essentially, the higher your risk of being sued, the more you should consider obtaining umbrella insurance.
Anyone who is risk-averse, on the other hand, will rest easier at night knowing that they are covered by an umbrella policy.
An Example of Umbrella Insurance in Action
Let’s imagine your homeowner’s insurance policy has a $300,000 personal liability limit. One of your visitors slips and falls on your snowy front steps while you’re hosting a major holiday party. She suffers a concussion and enormous medical bills as a result of your actions, and she decides to sue you. In court, the jury rules in favor of your party attendee, awarding her a $1 million judgment. This judgment exceeds the liability limit of your homeowner’s insurance by $700,000.
You’ll have to pay the $700,000 out of pocket if you don’t have a personal liability umbrella. The funds will have to come from your primary source of savings, your retirement account. The loss is severe, and you’ll have to work for another ten years, find a higher-paying career, or drastically reduce your expenses to replace your funds and get back on track to retire.
However, if you have $1 million in umbrella insurance, your umbrella policy will pay the percentage of the judgment that your homeowner’s insurance won’t, allowing you to keep your retirement savings. Any legal fees and other lawsuit-related expenditures not covered by your homeowner’s policy will be paid by the umbrella policy.
This is in addition to the $1 million in coverage.
So, if your homeowner’s insurance deductible is $5,000, you’ll have to pay that amount out of pocket. The next $295,000 will be covered by your homeowner’s policy, bringing you up to the $300,000 coverage limit. Because the homeowner’s policy covered some of the loss, your umbrella insurance doesn’t have a separate deductible in this scenario. The remaining $700,000 of the judgement, plus legal fees, are covered by your umbrella coverage, leaving you with only $5,000 out of pocket for the $1 million verdict.
What if your homeowner’s or auto insurance didn’t apply and you were judged liable? Then, before the umbrella policy kicked in, you’d have to pay an umbrella insurance deductible, also known as self-insured retention.
What Is the Cost of Umbrella Insurance?
The cost of an umbrella liability policy is determined by the amount of coverage you acquire, the state in which you live (insurance rates vary by state), and the risk you pose to the insurance provider. The more residences or cars you possess, as well as the number of household members covered by your insurance, the more it will cost.
However, when compared to other types of insurance, umbrella insurance is relatively affordable, especially given the amount of coverage it provides. Most $1 million plans, according to the Insurance Information Institute, cost $150 to $300 per year. You should anticipate to spend an extra $75 per year for $2 million in coverage, and another $50 per year for each additional $1 million.
Umbrella liability policies from most insurance carriers start at $1 million in coverage, with higher levels available.
What makes umbrella insurance so inexpensive? It’s partly because an insurance company won’t provide you an umbrella policy unless you have a lot of homeowner’s and motor insurance. Before you can buy an umbrella policy, you’ll generally need to have the maximum liability coverage offered under your homeowner’s and auto policies.
The majority of people have at least $100,000 in homeowner’s insurance. The minimum liability coverage required by your state varies, but it is normally $25,000 per person and $50,000 per accident.
Under your homeowner’s policy, you may normally buy up to $500,000 in personal liability and $250,000 per person, and $500,000 per accident under your motor insurance coverage.
Your homeowner’s and auto insurance premiums will go up if you don’t already have this much coverage, making the umbrella policy more expensive than it appears at first glance.
Investing in Umbrella Insurance
If obtaining an umbrella policy or boosting your coverage is too costly, you may be able to acquire endorsements to your vehicle or homeowners insurance that increase your liability limits above the typical maximums. You won’t get as much coverage as you would with an umbrella, but you’ll be better protected than you were before.
Another condition for umbrella insurance may be that you have your auto or homeowner’s insurance with the same company that supplies your umbrella policy. Even if the umbrella insurer you choose does not need you to have your homeowner’s and auto insurance policies with them as a condition of acquiring umbrella insurance, getting the insurer’s bundling discount this way may be cheaper. For administrative reasons, it may also be more convenient to have all of your policies with the same company.
Switching insurers to consolidate all of your policies under one roof, on the other hand, may result in higher overall premiums if the new company’s rates are higher. As a result, you’ll want to thoroughly compare quotes.