Umbrella Plan on Your Homeowners and Auto insurance-Wise or Waste of Money?

Updated on October 11, 2012
T.D. asks from Roseville, CA
11 answers

Is it a good idea to purchase an Umbrella plan over my homewners and auto insurance? Does anyone have this that can give me info. I was told it's great to have for extra coverage over my home and auto insurance even though we have full coverage on both cars and good coverage on our house. The umbrella will cover up to 1 million dollars....

Any advice is appreciated. Thanks.

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So What Happened?

Thanks so much for all your advice and educating me with the Umbrella plan. I decided to purchase it.

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A.B.

answers from Dallas on

It depends on what kind of assets you have. Yes, I have an umbrella policy because if I ever caused anyone that kind of damage through my own negligence, then I would want to take care of my financial responsibility as much as possible and also because I wouldn't want to lose everything I've ever worked for because of one bad mistake/decision.

4 moms found this helpful

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D.B.

answers from Minneapolis on

If you have any assets, your own business, or even dogs, it's a very wise investment. It's very inexpensive. We've had ours for 8 years now and let me tell you, 2 years ago when our dog chewed through the chainlinked fence of his enclosure & slipped his lead and ended up eating the neighbor's prize winning fancy chickens, I was the biggest piece of mind I've ever had. (ended up not suing us, but it's the first thing you think of when you find your dog trapped in the chicken coup.) ANYWAY, if you have balances on your cars, still rent, and are not self employed it's probably not so necessary. Lawyers only tend to pursue those who are financially worth it to them.

4 moms found this helpful
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P.R.

answers from Cleveland on

They tend to be cheap bc they're not used often but we have one. A bad accident can lead to wages being garnished for life. Otherwise, they can take your assets so it depends on how much your assets are vs your auto and homeowner coverage. If your net worth is really low, probably not worth it but for instance, we own our home outright and I don't want someone taking it!

3 moms found this helpful
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P.G.

answers from Dallas on

Very wise, VERY inexpensive for a huge amount of coverage - seriously, if I'm remembering correctly it's like a hundred bucks for a million in coverage. Do it.

3 moms found this helpful
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J.L.

answers from Chicago on

Absolutely do it....Sorry this is such a jaded and litigious society we live in. An umbrella policy should you need it will protect you from being ruined financially. Yes we have one ourselves and I feel a lot better about it.

2 moms found this helpful
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J.B.

answers from Boston on

If you have assets worth protecting then yes it's worth it. We have a negative net worth due to the large negative gap between the value of our home and what we owe on it so if we were ever liable for more than our insurance covers, we would declare bankruptcy. Right now our basic policies cover all that we own, all that we're worth and then some so we don't have an umbrella on top of that but when we get back to a place where we actually have something worth protecting, we'll do an umbrella for $1M.

2 moms found this helpful

T.F.

answers from Dallas on

We have it... Not that much $$ and peace of mind.

People are so sue happy nowadays it's worth it. I can't believe some of the lame reasons people sue. If they sue me though, they will have to work for it big time unless I know I or we were 100% at fault.

I'm have top legal representation so if someone chooses to sue me just to get money, believe me, they will work for it!

1 mom found this helpful
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K.B.

answers from Tulsa on

We have had one for ten years. If anyone ever sues you, you won't regret it.
We bought it because we were constantly driving other peoples' kids and many think a lawsuit is like hitting the lottery. They would not care that it hurt us because the insurance would pay. I was not about to have to take bankruptcy to avoid losing everything we worked so hard for.
We got two million for 200 per year.

1 mom found this helpful

F.H.

answers from Phoenix on

I'm an insurance agent in AZ. First off, there is no such thing as "full coverage". If you cause an accident with fatalities, trust me, umbrella or not, you will NOT be "fully covered" for that.

An Umbrella policy covers you above your home/auto liability policy. So say you have a major car accident and you have 100/300 liability on your auto. You are sued for 500k. Your auto policy will pay out the 300k, then your umbrella will kick in and pay the remaining 200k. If you did NOT have the umbrella, YOU would be financially responsible to pay the 200k out of pocket.

I suggest you find an independent agent that can shop around for you and explain insurance so you understand what you have/don't have. Don't get insurance online yourself unless you REALLY know what every coverage is for. You don't pay anymore to have an actual agent work for you. Good luck.

1 mom found this helpful
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L.K.

answers from Kansas City on

We've had one probably 10-12 years now? I like the peace of mind.

1 mom found this helpful
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J.G.

answers from Chicago on

We have a policy. It doesn't' cost all that much, and I like the extra security it gives us.

1 mom found this helpful
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