You’ve worked hard for your car, home, savings — your success. And personal umbrella coverage can help you protect these assets from the unexpected.
Umbrella insurance provides additional liability coverage — over and above the limits on your auto and other personal liability policies. This extra protection is available in $1 million increments up to $10 million. And $1 million of coverage can cost less than $1 a day.
It’s an affordable way to keep an extraordinary event from becoming a financial life-changer. Consider: The average jury award for auto accidents involving bodily injury and property damage exceeds $300,000. Liability awards for accidents in the home can be just as substantial.
Here are some of the ways an umbrella policy can help when covered events threaten your financial security:
While away at college, your 19-year-old son causes an accident that seriously injures a tech company’s top executives. Your auto insurance liability limits may not be high enough to cover their medical expenses and lost income while they recover.
A guest at the pool party you’re hosting slips on your diving board and falls onto a stone-paved deck. She’ll be okay — but will need back surgery and ongoing rehab. The cost of this care will exceed the limits of your homeowners policy.
Your friend trips and falls over a toy left in the middle of a hallway by your young son. She won’t be able to work for some time, and the liability limits of your homeowners insurance may not be high enough to cover her medical bills and other compensation.
You forget you left your bathtub running when you get distracted while checking for mail in your apartment building’s lobby. While you’re gone, the tub overflows — deluging your downstairs neighbor’s home office. Renter’s insurance won’t cover the full costs of damage to her property and business.
A standard umbrella policy provides additional liability coverage for:
• Your primary residence
• Two motorized vehicles
• Small Sailboats
• Motorboats with fewer than 50 horsepower
But you can also add optional umbrella coverage for other property and situations: Additional motorized vehicles; secondary or vacation homes; rental properties; unlicensed recreational vehicles; jet skis and jet sleds, vacant land; and uninsured/underinsured motorists.
Personal umbrella insurance follows you anywhere in the world, and features additional coverage your underlying policies might not include. For instance: It can help with legal fees and damages if you’re accused of slander in a social media post.
A Farmers umbrella policy builds on the liability coverage of two underlying policies: auto and homeowners or renters. While your auto insurance must be with Farmers, your home or renters insurance can be with Farmers or any other carrier.
By adding umbrella coverage to your home and auto insurance, you’re protecting many of your most important assets.
But is everything covered? You can get multiline discounts when you buy multiple Farmers policies for risks like these:
Risk
You’re at a lunch stop on your way to the lake when someone steals jet skis on the trailer behind your SUV.
Coverage
Personal watercraft coverage can help if your jet skis or other covered watercraft are stolen.
Risk
You wreck your motorcycle when it loses grip on a gravel road. You escape with minor cuts and bruises, but your bike needs major repairs.
Coverage
Motorcycle insurance can help if your bike is damaged in an accident.
Risk
Your retail store is battered by a major storm — so severely that it will need a new roof.
Coverage
Business property insurance can help when a covered disaster damages structures you own.
Risk
Your dog needs emergency surgery when he eats something that makes him sick.
Coverage
Pet insurance can help when your dog or cat has a medical emergency covered by your policy.
Bruce Simmons-Morton is a senior investigator specializing in teen driving at the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD).
Are you shopping for coverage? Ready to get an umbrella insurance quote? Maybe you have a question about a policy or need to file a claim. Our agents are ready to provide service and support for all your insurance needs.
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Talk to a Farmers® agent about umbrella insurance so you can choose the additional liability coverage you want.