Umbrella Liability Insurance

[bobk]

I have been reviewing my various insurance policies and just learned that the auto insurers who will write umbrella policies do not want to do so if you own a boat larger than 45'. The result in my case is a much more expensive policy, like more than double the cost when you use a company like USLI. Have any of you found an auto insurer who will provide a reasonable umbrella policy?

Bobk

 

[Cricket]

Do you utilize an independent insurance agent or brokerage? My advice having 35 years working in the insurance claims industry is to have an expert figure it out.

 

[jmagel]

I have an umbrella policy through Geico. Very inexpensive. Getting the policy was no problem as long as I had $500K liability coverage on the cars, house and boat.

 

[bobk]

Thanks. I do have an independent agent. I do not know if she looked at Geico but I will adviser her of that. With Hartford, they would not look at an umbrella. Safeco would, but not if the boat was over 45'. That three foot difference puts my cost up more than $600 per year.

Bobk

 

[Cricket]

Independent agents usually do not rep GEICO, there might be a few special situations. Travelers is big in the marine space so their underwriters sort of "get it". I have the boats with Travelers, houses and umbrella with Chubb, cars with Erie. The only issue I ever had was with a my Chubb umbrella over a waverunner which was the lowest end Kawasaki. The underwriter did a search on some turbo model developing it went over 65mph, the wrong model was researched and then everything was good.

 

[krush]

Policy a friend has says boats over 40(or 45') and boats go faster than 50mph (I think) are not covered, but it doesn't mean an umbrella isn't written for everything else.

 

[bobk]

Policy a friend has says boats over 40(or 45') and boats go faster than 50mph (I think) are not covered, but it doesn't mean an umbrella isn't written for everything else.

Makes sense, but I do not want to leave myself unprotected over the toy. So far it sounds like my agent has it correct.

I had Travelers for the Hatteras when I was bringing it north for the hurricane season. Great company, but they refuse to insure boats in Florida for that period. Seaworthy/Geico has it now so maybe I need to contact the marine agent.?

Bobk

 

[Fanfare]

By combining all my insurance policies with Chubb (house, office, cars, boat [in Florida and Bahamas], umbrella, etc.) using my independent agent I was able to get my old boat covered and saved a good amount of money over what all this was separately. So far I have had no problems and this has worked out well.

 

[rsmith]

A trial lawyer once told me he just loved people with multimillion dollar umbrellas, like red meat to a wolf he said. People with bare bones insurance just aren't worth sueing.

 

[JLR]

As a trial lawyer who works the other side of the bar, I sure like having the extra cushion to resolve cases before my clients need to dip into their own pockets. I sleep better knowing I have an umbrella over my primary policies. I consider it cheap insurance especially until I get my kids off my auto policies.

 

[SeaEric]

IMHO you need an umbrella to eclipse your net worth. I agree with JLR it's relatively inexpensive.

 

[Pete]

Within the past 30 days I had our umbrella policy renew. Policy is with State Farm as is all insurance other than boat. Each year at renewal time I need to supply a statement of losses, if any, from the boat insurance carrier. For the first time this year State Farm came back with another request. This time they wanted a statement from me on the engine horsepower in the boat. I provided it and have heard nothing since. But, my answer was 120 HP each, so they are probably still trying to stop laughing.

Pete

 

[captddis]

A couple years ago, My wife retiered from Teaching and the County supplied a planner for us.

I have had a 2 mil umbrella . I was told that I did not need it, and 1 mil was enough.
He said that cases he has seen the lawyer go for amount of insurance with 1 mil plus one dollar. If a 2mill they want 2mil and a dollar.

Any thoughts? I am not rich, so that propabaly plays in.

 

[Cricket]

Hmmmm, how many cases could the planner have actually been involved with?
The plaintiff attorneys are always looking to break new ground with awards.
What's the difference in cost between 1 mil and 2 mil?
What's your net worth? How much do you like your lifestyle?
I had 2 mil, found out 5 mil was just a little more.

As previously stated I've been involved in the claims space for over 30 years, people always bitch about their premiums, if you have a major claim you will end up with what you paid for or didn't pay for.

 

[Bayside Bert54]

A trial lawyer once told me he just loved people with multimillion dollar umbrellas, like red meat to a wolf he said. People with bare bones insurance just aren't worth sueing.

I had an electrician who attacked my dog "because the electrician says he was scared and the dog was about to attack" ... through the process, I found out my umbrella had a gap where there was no coverage from $25k (where my homeowners stopped) to $400k where my umbrella started.

Long and short of it is that his first lawyers dumped the case because they knew the shakedown was going to be a challenge.

He ended up getting $35k.

I have fixed the gap so the next scoundrel with a frivolous lawsuit will get a nice settlement.

 

[Freeebird]

Within the past 30 days I had our umbrella policy renew. Policy is with State Farm as is all insurance other than boat. Each year at renewal time I need to supply a statement of losses, if any, from the boat insurance carrier. For the first time this year State Farm came back with another request. This time they wanted a statement from me on the engine horsepower in the boat. I provided it and have heard nothing since. But, my answer was 120 HP each, so they are probably still trying to stop laughing.

Pete

State Farm can be nothing short of comical when it comes to boats. I recently owned two identical boats (three years difference in model year) and simply switched their respective outboards in anticipation of selling one of them. I made the necessary changes on both policies which later involved them questioning the horsepower rating on the "new" boat which now had the "old" motor.

First, the boats were absolutely identical. Second, horsepower ratings go out the window at 20'. Things that make you go, hmmm...

 

[Pete]

One more State Farm story. 6 maybe 8 years ago I insisted that my State Farm agent give me a quote on my boat insurance, close if not identical to the BoatUS coverage. The premium came back just under 5X what I had with BoatUS. I definitely got the message that State Farm does not want to be in the old large boat insurance business.

Pete

 

[Cricket]

Unfortunately today's State Farm is not nearly quality carrier it once was although still better than many.