Personal Umbrella Liability Insurance
Personal umbrella liability insurance is designed to protect you against a catastrophic lawsuit or judgment. It provides expanded coverage and increases the amount of your liability protection beyond the basic coverage provided under your homeowners/renters and auto insurance policies. Unlike other types of liability coverage personal umbrella liability insurance can be purchased as a separate policy. However, your insurer will require that you have underlying basic liability coverage (homeowners/renters insurance, auto insurance, or both) before you can purchase an umbrella liability policy. If you are found to be legally responsible for injuring someone or damaging someone's property the umbrella policy will either pay the part of the claim in excess of the limits of your basic liability coverage or pay for certain losses not covered by your basic personal liability insurance. Naturally, no one expects to be sued. But a good personal liability policy can definitely help to protect both your family and your future.
Why do you need it?
Standard homeowners policies usually provide $100,000 to $300,000 worth of liability coverage. As well as the fact that most states now require you to carry auto insurance with minimum liability coverage (which varies from state to state). It is possible to purchase additional liability coverage under these policies, but amounts may be limited. In today's society, it's not unusual to hear of $1-million, $2-million, and even $10-million liability judgments against individuals. If someone is injured in your home, or if you cause a serious auto accident, you could be hit with such a judgment. Without a personal umbrella liability policy, anything beyond the liability coverage limits of your homeowners/renters or auto insurance policy will have to come out of your pockets.