FAIR WARNING - THIS WILL BE TMW FOR A LOT OF MEMBERS.
In the vein that even an old dog can learn new tricks, I offer this short account of my recent experience with liability insurance. The discussion is directed at at the older members who assets they wish to protect.
I have two liability policies, one on my home, and one on my automobiles. Due to age, I don't carry casualty or collision on my autos, but have replacement value coverage on my home.
This discussion is about liability coverage.
So I got the renewal notice on my auto, it's automatic, but I typically pause and reflect on my coverage. For example, I am always surprised at how many people do not carry Uninsured Motorist coverage. Anyway, my liability coverage on auto and home was each 100/500/50. Breaking that down, that money my insurance company would pay an injured party for injuries I CAUSED through my negligence. It breaks down to $100,000 for any single person, $300,000 for all persons injured in an accident $50,000 for damages to other people's property. By way of illustration, and to make the math easy, if I caused an accident and injured 6 people, the most that anyone could collect would be a fraction of $300,000. It's not impossible to for the insurance company to pay $100,000 to one party, leaving you uninsured or underinsured for the others. The insurance company totally controls who gets how much.
But that's not what got me thinking. It was the $50K property damage. I keep reading about $70K Teslas, $75K F150s, and Jalen Carter wrecked a $120,000 JEEP !!! right down the road from me. I considered myself seriously underinsured for property damage claims, which in my opinion is more likely to occur than underinsured personal injury.
The premise of this discussion is that I am old, I own my house, I own my automobiles, I have some investments, I don't owe anyone a dime except for taxes. If you are not in that position, this discussion will not apply to you. Simply put, the older I get, and the longer I go without a claim, the more likely it is that one will be made, and I don't need to be having uninsured claims made against me at this stage of life.
So I considered getting an umbrella policy. Talking about the cobbler's children have no shoes, I have recommended such policies for years to clients who are in business, but never consider one for myself, considering myself to be adequately insured. Times change.
An "umbrella policy" is a liability policy that provides excess coverage over and above your existing liability policy. The coverage of your primary policy, in most cases your auto/home coverage has to be exhausted (paid) before your umbrella policy kicks in. it typically is for a single event, it does not break down in to coverage per person. It typically is comparitively inexpensive, because the only risk is that you will have a claim that exceeds the primary policies coverage.
So I get on the horn with my local agent. (Aside, from 50 years experience with insurance companies, I would not have insurance with a company that did not have a local agent, no matter how cheap. You will learn why it's cheap when you have a claim.)
First point, I was surprised that my insurance company offered umbrella policies. I thought the policies were special insurance that had to be placed. So that was good news.
Second Point, I had to raise my auto coverage to 250/500/75. The cost for doing that was nominal as the extra coverage over my existing coverage is essentially "umbrella", i.e. low risk, and this was basically a mathematical exercise - intending to give some actuary a woody for making this point.
Third point, because it's an "umbrella", it covers both my auto and home insurance.
Fourth, and most surprising point, because it is my third policy with the company, I get a substantial discount on all three policies. Who knew? At the end of the day, when all the math is sorted out, I ended up getting $1,000,000.00 (One Million Dollars) in liability coverage (and a substantial bump in auto liability) for a little over $200 a year. Broken out, my auto coverage premium is actually less. Go figure.
Right now, at this stage of my life, asset protection is my primary goal. I just can't see myself losing everything to a bunch of illegals because of a momentary lapse on my part. I am not promoting that you get an umbrella policy, I am promoting that you contact your agent, assuming you have one, and discuss the option. You know the things they say about a converted sinner, and right now, I confess that I should have looked into this years ago, when my house was paid off. My point is that the expense is truly insignificant compared to my peace of mind.
Now I realize this TMW for a lot of the regulars, and I emphasize that it is only intended for those of mature years, who have a home and other assets they want to protect.
In the vein that even an old dog can learn new tricks, I offer this short account of my recent experience with liability insurance. The discussion is directed at at the older members who assets they wish to protect.
I have two liability policies, one on my home, and one on my automobiles. Due to age, I don't carry casualty or collision on my autos, but have replacement value coverage on my home.
This discussion is about liability coverage.
So I got the renewal notice on my auto, it's automatic, but I typically pause and reflect on my coverage. For example, I am always surprised at how many people do not carry Uninsured Motorist coverage. Anyway, my liability coverage on auto and home was each 100/500/50. Breaking that down, that money my insurance company would pay an injured party for injuries I CAUSED through my negligence. It breaks down to $100,000 for any single person, $300,000 for all persons injured in an accident $50,000 for damages to other people's property. By way of illustration, and to make the math easy, if I caused an accident and injured 6 people, the most that anyone could collect would be a fraction of $300,000. It's not impossible to for the insurance company to pay $100,000 to one party, leaving you uninsured or underinsured for the others. The insurance company totally controls who gets how much.
But that's not what got me thinking. It was the $50K property damage. I keep reading about $70K Teslas, $75K F150s, and Jalen Carter wrecked a $120,000 JEEP !!! right down the road from me. I considered myself seriously underinsured for property damage claims, which in my opinion is more likely to occur than underinsured personal injury.
The premise of this discussion is that I am old, I own my house, I own my automobiles, I have some investments, I don't owe anyone a dime except for taxes. If you are not in that position, this discussion will not apply to you. Simply put, the older I get, and the longer I go without a claim, the more likely it is that one will be made, and I don't need to be having uninsured claims made against me at this stage of life.
So I considered getting an umbrella policy. Talking about the cobbler's children have no shoes, I have recommended such policies for years to clients who are in business, but never consider one for myself, considering myself to be adequately insured. Times change.
An "umbrella policy" is a liability policy that provides excess coverage over and above your existing liability policy. The coverage of your primary policy, in most cases your auto/home coverage has to be exhausted (paid) before your umbrella policy kicks in. it typically is for a single event, it does not break down in to coverage per person. It typically is comparitively inexpensive, because the only risk is that you will have a claim that exceeds the primary policies coverage.
So I get on the horn with my local agent. (Aside, from 50 years experience with insurance companies, I would not have insurance with a company that did not have a local agent, no matter how cheap. You will learn why it's cheap when you have a claim.)
First point, I was surprised that my insurance company offered umbrella policies. I thought the policies were special insurance that had to be placed. So that was good news.
Second Point, I had to raise my auto coverage to 250/500/75. The cost for doing that was nominal as the extra coverage over my existing coverage is essentially "umbrella", i.e. low risk, and this was basically a mathematical exercise - intending to give some actuary a woody for making this point.
Third point, because it's an "umbrella", it covers both my auto and home insurance.
Fourth, and most surprising point, because it is my third policy with the company, I get a substantial discount on all three policies. Who knew? At the end of the day, when all the math is sorted out, I ended up getting $1,000,000.00 (One Million Dollars) in liability coverage (and a substantial bump in auto liability) for a little over $200 a year. Broken out, my auto coverage premium is actually less. Go figure.
Right now, at this stage of my life, asset protection is my primary goal. I just can't see myself losing everything to a bunch of illegals because of a momentary lapse on my part. I am not promoting that you get an umbrella policy, I am promoting that you contact your agent, assuming you have one, and discuss the option. You know the things they say about a converted sinner, and right now, I confess that I should have looked into this years ago, when my house was paid off. My point is that the expense is truly insignificant compared to my peace of mind.
Now I realize this TMW for a lot of the regulars, and I emphasize that it is only intended for those of mature years, who have a home and other assets they want to protect.
