What is umbrella insurance?
Umbrella insurance provides additional liability coverage — over and above the limits on your auto and other personal liability policies. This extra protection is available in $1 million increments up to $10 million. And $1 million of coverage can cost less than $1 a day.
It’s an affordable way to keep an extraordinary event from becoming a financial life-changer. Consider the average jury award for auto accidents involving bodily injury and property damage exceeds $300,000. Liability awards for accidents in the home can be just as substantial.
Ways an umbrella policy can help when covered events threaten your financial security:
Your son causes a car accident
While away at college, your 19-year-old son causes an accident that seriously injures a tech company’s top executives. Your auto insurance liability limits may not be high enough to cover their medical expenses and lost income while they recover.
Your injured guest needs ongoing care
A guest at the pool party you’re hosting slips on your diving board and falls onto a stone-paved deck. She’ll be okay — but will need back surgery and ongoing rehab. The cost of this care will exceed the limits of your homeowners policy.
Your injured friend can’t work
Your friend trips and falls over a toy left in the middle of a hallway by your young son. She won’t be able to work for some time, and the liability limits of your homeowners insurance may not be high enough to cover her medical bills and other compensation.
You flood your downstairs neighbor
You forget you left your bathtub running when you get distracted while checking for mail in your apartment building’s lobby. While you’re gone, the tub overflows — deluging your downstairs neighbor’s home office. Renter’s insurance won’t cover the full costs of damage to her property and business.
What does umbrella insurance cover?
A standard umbrella policy provides additional liability coverage for:
- Your primary residence
- Two motorized vehicles
- Small Sailboats
- Motorboats with fewer than 50 horsepower
But you can also add optional umbrella coverage for other property and situations…
- Additional motorized vehicles
- Secondary or vacation homes
- Rental properties
- Unlicensed recreational vehicles
- Jet skis and jet sleds
- Vacant land
- Uninsured/underinsured motorists
Enjoy features you might not expect
Personal umbrella insurance follows you anywhere in the world, and features additional coverage your underlying policies might not include. For instance, it can help with legal fees and damages if you’re accused of slander in a social media post.
Add umbrella insurance to existing liability coverage
A Farmers umbrella policy builds on the liability coverage of two underlying policies: auto and homeowners or renters. While your auto insurance must be with Farmers, your home or renters insurance can be with Farmers or any other carrier.
Other popular insurance options to consider…
By adding umbrella coverage to your home and auto insurance, you’re protecting many of your most important assets. But is everything covered? You can get multiline discounts when you buy multiple Farmers policies for risks like these:
Your jet skis are stolen
Risk: You’re at a lunch stop on your way to the lake when someone steals jet skis on the trailer behind your SUV.
Coverage: Personal watercraft coverage can help if your jet skis or other covered watercraft are stolen.
You damage your motorcycle
Risk: You wreck your motorcycle when it loses grip on a gravel road. You escape with minor cuts and bruises, but your bike needs major repairs.
Coverage: Motorcycle insurance can help if your bike is damaged in an accident.
Your retail store is hit by a storm
Risk: Your retail store is battered by a major storm — so severely that it will need a new roof.
Coverage: Business property insurance can help when a covered disaster damages structures you own.
Your dog needs surgery
Risk: Your dog needs emergency surgery when he eats something that makes him sick.
Coverage: Pet insurance can help when your dog or cat has a medical emergency covered by your policy.