A personal umbrella insurance policy is an extra layer of liability protection above and beyond your standard insurance policies. Just like its name, an umbrella policy encapsulates all of your assets under its protection for greater peace of mind. 

With record-high home values in the Greater Seattle area, many homeowners are especially vulnerable to costly liability claims that go above standard liability coverage limits.

A personal umbrella insurance policy is designed to protect your financial assets in major claims that you were found responsible for. This optional policy extends your standard coverages such as homeowners, auto, landlord, and renters insurance. 

For example, if you happened to be in a major at-fault auto accident and the other person's injuries exhausted the liability coverage on your auto insurance, your umbrella policy will set in and take care of the remaining balance up to its coverage limit. 

Besides paying for the costs of injuries and damages to properties, your umbrella insurance will also help you with legal costs to fight potential lawsuits associated with an accident. 

Umbrella insurance will provide protection against the following types of claims:

• Bodily injury: medical expenses, lost wages, funeral expenses.
• Property damage: cost to repair or replace another person's damaged property, such as home, car, boat, etc. 
• Personal injury: false arrest, libel, slander, etc., that may be excluded in your standard policies. 
• Landlord liability: protects you from liability claims on your rental property. 

An umbrella policy not only protects your financial assets, but also extends its coverages to shield your immediate family living under the same household. This extended protection includes your spouse as well as your children who are still financially dependent on you.

Some insurance companies may be able to offer even higher coverages.

Which means that it must be insured together with either your auto insurance or your primary residence policy such as your home, condo or renters insurance.

In order to purchase an umbrella policy, you must meet certain coverage limit requirements on your standard insurance policies. 

Some common examples of standard policies are: 

If you are currently insured for any of the items listed above, you may need to meet the minimum coverage requirement for each item before you can add umbrella insurance onto your policy.

Examples of minimum coverage requirements:

For watercraft liability coverage such as for your boat or jet ski, the minimum requirement is usually set at $300,000. 

Property policy such as homeowners, condo, or landlord if you have a rental home, the minimum coverage requirement is typically set at $300,000.

An umbrella policy is quite affordable given the greater financial protection it affords to its policyholders. According to the Insurance Information Institute, most umbrella policies cost between $150 to $300 per year for coverage of $1,000,000.

Give us a call today for a quick and easy quote to find out how much it will cost to add this extra layer of protection onto your insurance policy.