Umbrella Policy

[vteye3]

Umbrella coverage is important for folks with high net worth think a million + in net assets or those whom will inherit family assets or for those with high incomes. The industry likes to package as you may have heard. Umbrella policies rarely pay out thus the $200 premiums but s#!t happens everyday. The industry has really pushed agents to sell more umbrellas (30+ years as an agent) so you will be asked and if in not find another agent. Yes, auto coverage is the underlying risk the companies are most concerned with as statistically much more likely to get the umbrella involved in bad auto accident than anything to do with home ownership.

Completely agree review every few years with incumbent agent and at least competitor or two.
Exclusive agents LM, SF, Allstate, Nationwide, are not going to shop for you.

[Derwood]

This is the response I got from my agent (it seems like a no-brainer to me but I thought I'd check):


$1 Million Umbrella

- Based on 4 vehicles (counts scooter), one home, and one boat

- $289 Annual based on your current auto policy limits

- $177 Annual if we increase your auto policy limits to $500,000 as discussed

o It shakes out that you are within about $10 annually if you go this route, but you also get an additional $250k worth of coverage



AAA Membership

- If you add AAA as a roadside membership to better align coverage/benefits, your auto policy will go down about $135- $140 annually after the change/discounts

- A Classic membership for the first year would be $73.50 (or $63.50 if you sign up for auto renew --- you can change that preference at any time)

- A Plus membership for the first year would be $151.50 (or $141.50 if you sign up for auto renew ---- you can change that preference at any time)

o Benefit comparison is attached. Big differences are the miles of “free” towing included per occurrence at 100 for Plus and 5 for Classic, & Plus also expands the eligible vehicles to include motorcycle/scooters as well as trailers including your boat trailer

Give me a shout and we can talk through the membership options in more detail, but you are basically going to be breakeven or even coming out ahead while adding the benefits in the first year. There are some discounts in the membership price for year one so those numbers will change a bit, but we just tell people to give us a call at renewal and we reevaluate to see what makes most sense at that time.

Originally Posted by vteye3

Umbrella coverage is important for folks with high net worth think a million + in net assets or those whom will inherit family assets or for those with high incomes.

I tend to think that those with middle or lower income or net worth/assets would need additional protection as much or more than a high net worth family.

A high net worth individual might be hurt financially in a lawsuit where an average family might be wiped out completely.

[vteye3]

I worked with far more families who would be considered middle/upper middle than well to do in VT. Folks with lower incomes and or no assets to protect aside from home equity IMHO don't need umbrella coverage. They need good liability on home/auto. I always suggest talking with a lawyer or tax preparer. Many of my referrals came that way. One thing this former agent never did was give free legal advice.

[kswalleyer]

I like and have umbrella policies. i meet with my agent 1X a year and ask...what has changed? do my coverages still make sense? what DONT I have? some extremely cheap coverages(drain back up as an example) can be ovelooked but be decent sized risk for a few bucks coverage. with a few tweeks each year, you can usually find the money to cover or drop your expense and not be adversly effected in a claims situation.