A personal umbrella policy has two functions: 1) it is an excess liability contract that affords higher insurance limits over your home, automobile, boat, motorcycle, etc. and 2) it offers additional coverages often not found in standard automobile or homeowners policies. Typically, limit options range between $1 million and $10 million, and such limits will only be issued after certain underlying coverages required by the insurance carrier have been purchased.
It used to be that personal umbrella contracts were only purchased by wealthy individuals with sizeable amounts of personal assets that may be at risk in the unfortunate event of a lawsuit. In today’s world, however, we live in a very litigious society, and many have come to realize the importance of having additional liability insurance over what is provided within their basic homeowners and automobile contracts. The personal umbrella policy is ideally suited to provide this extra protection.