The million-dollar policy that costs a few hundred.
An umbrella policy sits over everything else you own: your auto policy, your homeowners, the boat, the toys. When a liability claim blows past the limits on any of them, the umbrella pays the difference, usually one million dollars at a time. It is the most protection per premium dollar in personal insurance, and the coverage true advisers bring up first.
How it works
Your auto and home policies each carry a liability limit, often 100,000 to 500,000 dollars. A serious accident, a dog bite, a guest hurt at your pool, or a teenage driver’s bad afternoon can produce a judgment well beyond that. The umbrella starts paying where the underlying policy stops, and it follows you across all of your policies at once instead of raising each limit separately.
What it costs
Most households pay a few hundred dollars a year for the first million, and less for each million after that. The carriers price it low because it rarely pays, and when it does, it is the policy standing between a judgment and your savings, your home equity, and your future wages. We wrote about the cost in detail.
Who needs one
Anyone with more to lose than their underlying limits: homeowners, landlords, parents of young drivers, pool and trampoline owners, and anyone whose driveway holds more than a car, because boats, RVs, ATVs, and golf carts multiply liability exposure fast. How umbrellas cover the toys.
What it does not cover
Your own injuries or your own property; those belong to your health, auto, and home policies. Intentional harm. Business liability, which needs its own policy. And it requires minimum limits on the policies underneath it, which we check and true up as part of the quote.
Who we quote
RLI, Markel, Progressive, Safeco, Chubb, and more. See every carrier we work with.