Your insurance does more than protect you – it also gives you peace of mind amidst the strange curveballs that life can throw your way. Your standard home and auto policies can silence many of those fears, but it may make sense to have even more of your bases covered with umbrella insurance. 

You’ve heard people talk about umbrella insurance, but what is it, exactly? 

What is Umbrella Insurance?

An umbrella policy goes beyond basic home and auto policies by shielding you from claims that are not otherwise covered:

• If you exceed your limit on a claim, umbrella insurance may provide additional coverage to tamp down your out-of-pocket costs.

• If you’re faced with claims that aren’t covered under a standard policy, umbrella insurance can help protect you.

That’s cool, say more about that.

Ok, let’s say there’s a car accident that injures someone else, or damages someone else’s property. An auto policy covering up to $200K would likely cover the other party’s property damage, but medical bills and lawsuits could put you on the hook for much more. 

Unfortunately, liability is not capped to just hospital stays. If someone holds you responsible for mental anguish or injuries that keep them out of work, they could sue for damages. Wuh-oh!

Umbrella insurance can also cover you for less-than-obvious risks. Ever leave a negative review online for a restaurant? That steakhouse could sue you for libel, even if the porterhouse really did taste like a hockey puck topped with battery acid. Traditional homeowner’s insurance won’t cover a suit resulting from your one-star slam, but umbrella insurance can protect you if a sensitive business owner yelps back with allegations of lost business.

Essentially, umbrella insurance can protect against non-cookie-cutter claims from other parties that threaten to take all of your chips, such as:

• Bodily injury (e.g. broken bones)

• Property damage

• Landlord liability

Whoa, that’s a lot of coverage. Is umbrella insurance expensive?

Even with all of that protection, umbrella insurance is more affordable than you’d think. To see what it’ll cost you, check out your prices here and attach an umbrella policy to your bundle. 

What isn’t covered by umbrella insurance?

Umbrella insurance branches off (🌲🌲🌲TREE PUN!🌲🌲🌲) from your existing policies to keep you covered in the event of alleged damages suffered by someone else. 

Umbrella insurance does not cover your own injuries and damages – that’s what your existing health, home and auto policies provide. 

In short, umbrella insurance usually does not cover:

• Damage to your own personal property

• Your business losses resulting from a home or auto incident

• Liability from contracts you’ve entered

• Malpractice lawsuits 

• Workers compensation claims against you

• Losses related to intentionally criminal activities 

• Laying $500 on the Dolphins to cover the spread even though you know they’re terrible on the road against cold weather teams

Do you need umbrella insurance?

The level of protection and security provided by umbrella insurance pays off for just about everyone.

Let’s say you have a young driver in your household that tends to change tracks on Spotify when they should be keeping their hands at 10-and-2. If they happen to back into the kitchen of that steakhouse you slammed on Yelp (You were right, by the way. Worst steak ever.) while parking, you could be sued for millions over hospital stays, rehabilitative care, property damage, lost business, and more.

Millions, for that joint? It can happen. Simply put – there are one million reasons why you should get umbrella insurance.

Quick Branch trivia: Did you know that Branch wrote America’s first umbrella policy online… ever.

Whoa. That’s nuts.

You see, Umbrella Insurance is a hard product to get without a human middle-person. But, with enough commitment to providing low cost, high quality insurance, turns out, it can be done. 😁