Home / Auto Insurance & Umbrella policies

[MAG]

Hi gang-

This may be somewhat OT, but hopefully it's interesting enough for the forum:

I've been considering an umbrella policy to go along with my home & auto insurance. Apparently this is a common thing, giving for example $1M liability coverage for things that slip through the traditional home and auto policy, or for damages to us that go beyond the limits of the home & auto policies.

I've got my insurance policies with Allstate, so I was about to sign up for their coverage (works out to about $200 per year), but then found out that excluded is coverage for excess damages to us by under- or uninsured drivers. I would have to specifically increase my auto coverage to deal with this. From a cost perspective, I'd rather just get an umbrella policy that wasn't so leaky.

Apparently most other umbrella policies do include this, and Allstate seems to be "odd" in this respect.

I'd like to get feedback from the group about good companies to go to for umbrella policies to supplement their home/auto insurance.

Thanks

Marc

[Art Begun]

State Farm works the same.

found

Allstate

[Sligo]

[John Keiser]

It's an "excess" or "umbrella" policy and does not cover "what slips through the cracks." It only pays after the primary coverage is exhausted. It does not pay if you don't have the required primary coverage.

You should be able to get excess coverage starting at less than $1 million primary but may be cheaper to increase your primary.

-- Remove -NOSPAM- to contact me.

[Daniel L. Belton]

Also... Be very careful with Allstate. They have cancelled several polcies that I know of. One was an auto policy, the person had no accidents or tickets for a period of over 10 years. when they had 1 accident, they cancelled the policy and tried to get the person to take out another one with their "preferred risk" company at 3 times the cost.

[Childfree Scott]

How were you able to get homeowners insurance for only $200/year?

[MAG]

There is a misunderstanding: the umbrella on top of the existing homeowners / auto would come to $200 per year. Actually, the homeowners' plus the auto insurance together are about $1400 / year (Howard County, MD). The umbrella policy would be about $270 but comes with a 5% discount on the other policies, so the net increase in cost would be ~$200.

My auto policy has been the typical 100/300/100, so things that worry me are:

1. My wife and I cause an accident with damages/liablity greater than the coverages listed above.
2. Un/under-insured motorist causes us damages in excess of the 0k shown above.

I'm also generally worried about other things that might happen around the house that would come with liability greater than I carry on the house, which was another reason for wanting a $1M "all perils" kind of liability coverage. Unfortunately, the umbrella policies I've seen so far seem to be very leaky.

Marc

[Richard J Kinch]

It is supposed to cover your liability for your acts, not uninsured motorists. Not really a "leak".

You should by all means consider the exclusions seriously, but often they don't hold up in court.

Florida is in an insurance crisis on several fronts. You can't buy (to save money) a homeowner's policy omitting exorbitantly-priced hurricane coverage, because the insurers are afraid the state would void the exclusion if there was a loss.