Excess Liability / Umbrella Coverage

An umbrella policy is often thought to be needed by only the very rich but is becoming more apparent that most people should have an umbrella.  Umbrella policies are designed to give you coverage beyond the limits of your standard insurance policy.  The policy protects the assets and future income of the policy holder above these limits.  Most umbrellas sold are for between 1-5 million dollars and they are sold in million dollar increments.  An example of an umbrella policy is, if your liability limits on your auto policy are $500,000 and your homeowner's liability is $300,000, then with a million dollar umbrella, you gain limits of $1,500,000 on your auto policy and $1,300,000 on a homeowners liability claim.  In Florida, the average personal injury verdict is $1,819,751 according to Jury Verdict Research.

Umbrella policy have coverage beyond just a traditional home and auto policy.  They can be used to help provide coverage against
1. False Arrest
2. Defamation
3. Excess Liability covered from other policies

The design of an umbrella is to have coverage once the liability on your other policies is exhausted.