Be Well Protected with Umbrella Insurance
Umbrella insurance serves to basically increase the liability limits of a standard policy to further the protection one enjoys with normal plans like homeowners, auto, boat and others. For illustrational purposes, let’s suppose that a neighbor is enjoying your pool when out of the blue he decides to run along the edge of it and suddenly slips and impacts his head. It’s not unheard of that someone in that situation might decide to sue you to pay the medical bills and lost wages resulting from the injury.
If you believe that your existing home insurance will pay for this kind of thing, you’d likely be very wrong. Normal coverage will likely pay for some of the cost, possibly up to the liability limit. Any costs beyond that are probably your responsibility, out-of-pocket (pending the decision of the court).
This is when umbrella insurance, aka “excess liability” insurance, can be a proverbial life-saver. Many of these kind of policies offer liability limits of anywhere from $1 to $5 million. This would mean that if your home insurance policy has a $100,000 liability coverage limit and your neighbor sues you for $300,000, then the umbrella policy would pay the additional $200,000 in damages.
Coverage types of umbrella insurance include bodily injury liability, which concerns damage to another individual’s body. There’s property damage liability which is similar but refers to damage to another person’s property. Then there’s personal liability which addresses damage to others that happens outside of your home.
This policy can also provide protection for non-business related liabilities like slander or libel, false arrest, malicious prosecution, wrongful eviction and even mental pain and suffering to name quite a few.
A way to determine if this coverage is appropriate for you is to ponder whether your total assets exceed the total liability coverage of your home, car, or boat insurance policies. Essentially, the more assets you own, the more this kind of coverage can be helpful. Quite bluntly, the more wealthy you are, the more you are at risk of attracting lawsuits.
The priceless benefit of this coverage is enormous peace of mind it provides knowing that you are protected. Cost is another plus- umbrella policies are known to offer a good amount of coverage for a very modest cost. Some of these policies can cost as little as $1 per day. Learn how umbrella insurance is both effective and affordable by making a call and speaking with one of our advisors.