Umbrella Insurance

[Colorado21a]

My wife and I have auto and home insurance with two separate companies and will be trying to bundle in the next month or two our auto, home, and a new umbrella policy.

Are there guidelines for how much umbrella insurance coverage one should have?

Is it important to have umbrella coverage with the same insurer as the other coverages?

In the past, we've tried to bundle but the best deals were always to have separate coverage for auto and home. If that's the case this time, is it better to buy umbrella coverage through the auto insurer, homeowners' insurer, or whomever is offering the best price?

Thanks!!!!!

[miket29]

What I want with umbrella coverage is enough so that (a) I get a good legal defense (b) it's enough so that the plaintiff's lawyer advises them to settle for the insurance coverage rather than going to trial for more. A verdict above the insurance coverage may end up being less after the increased legal fees for taking a case to trial, to say nothing of the impact of the delay.

My guess is these days this means $2 million in more in umbrella coverage. As for same insurer as your other coverage, generally costs are lower if you bundle. Also some insurers won't write an umbrella policy unless you have another policy with them. If they are 2 separate companies (say auto & umbrella) I don't know how they coordinate the legal costs, will be interested to see what others say.

One last piece of advice is to look for an umbrella policy that has uninsured motorist coverage included or available. This is my bigger worry; I'm not racing around in my car, my home seems safe for visitors, but there are lot's of uninsured drivers out there and the state minimums are a joke.

[aruba joe]

Please explain the worry about uninsured/underinsured motorist coverage for umbrella policy. Is it only for the case where someone riding in your vehicle is injured and they sue you?

[wwhan]

We had Umbrella, Auto & Home Insurance with Liberty Mutual. This year Liberty Mutual did not renew the umbrella insurance, so we had to get a another company for umbrella insurance.

Our agent is with Comparion Insurance Agency, A Liberty Mutual Company : https://www.comparioninsurance.com/insurance-agent

The two quotes from our broker at Comparion we received were;

1.) Stillwater - which had the lowest premium: https://stillwaterinsurance.com/umbrella-insurance
2.) RLI - $25 higher premium but good ratings: https://www.rlicorp.com/personal-umbrella-insurance

We went with RLI.

"RLI’s history of innovation dates to the early 1960s, when Founder Gerald D. Stephens, recognized the expense of replacing contact lenses, and founded RLI — Replacement Lens, Inc. — a contact lens insurance agency. In 1965, he acquired the holding company that would later become RLI Corp. RLI was one of the first insurers of contact lenses. In time, it emerged as the largest insurer of its kind in the world."

With RLI Umbrella insurance, there were some changes in required liability maximums for our Home and Auto insurance policies.

Auto insurance, minimum liability $500k
Home insurance, minimum liability $300k

[miket29]

Please explain the worry about uninsured/underinsured motorist coverage for umbrella policy. Is it only for the case where someone riding in your vehicle is injured and they sue you?

No, it protects both you and your passengers against claims the other at-fault driver can't pay just like it does in your auto policy. It just is a much larger amount of coverage than the auto policy has.

[growfolio]

Are there guidelines for how much umbrella insurance coverage one should have?

Is it important to have umbrella coverage with the same insurer as the other coverages?

Our financial advisor suggested we get coverage to match our assets. After reading BH opinions we decided to go with $2M coverage.

It's not necessary to get umbrella with the same insurer. In our case, our auto and homeowner insurers didn't offer umbrella. We went with RLI for our umbrella.

[toddthebod]

My wife and I have auto and home insurance with two separate companies and will be trying to bundle in the next month or two our auto, home, and a new umbrella policy.

Are there guidelines for how much umbrella insurance coverage one should have?

Is it important to have umbrella coverage with the same insurer as the other coverages?

In the past, we've tried to bundle but the best deals were always to have separate coverage for auto and home. If that's the case this time, is it better to buy umbrella coverage through the auto insurer, homeowners' insurer, or whomever is offering the best price?

Thanks!!!!!

One to two million.

Price it out bundled or not. See what looks best.

[dcabler]

My wife and I have auto and home insurance with two separate companies and will be trying to bundle in the next month or two our auto, home, and a new umbrella policy.

Are there guidelines for how much umbrella insurance coverage one should have?

Is it important to have umbrella coverage with the same insurer as the other coverages?

In the past, we've tried to bundle but the best deals were always to have separate coverage for auto and home. If that's the case this time, is it better to buy umbrella coverage through the auto insurer, homeowners' insurer, or whomever is offering the best price?

Thanks!!!!!

This is a subject that comes up pretty often (how much to get). here are some recent threads
viewtopic.php?t=421662
viewtopic.php?t=428356&start=50

Lots of ways people think about it, but one thing to make sure you understand is which assets are protected from judgment in your state of residence, beyond ERISA.

Kiplingers has a calculator as well: https://www.kiplinger.com/personal-fina ... -do-i-need

Cheers