[Willy702]

Originally Posted by pointdexter_jr

A friend was talking about this, but I was not paying close attention (multiple conversations at the same time) -
can you give more details?

You will get it through whoever does you insurance. Usually have to have all forms of insurance with the same carrier to get it. Also note insurers will demand you get high liability to begin with and then add the umbrella on top. So it works like this, now you might have 100/300 limit on your car insurance, they will force you to buy 250/500 limit on your car insurance (costing you another $10-20/month) and they will sell an umbrella to get to $1m or $2m, which costs $10-20/month as well unless you have driving kids under 21 then it will be a lot more. If anyone on your policy gets into an accident what umbrella does more than pays out a claim is proves to the other "side" you have insurance and an insurer who will get you a lawyer to protect you.

Fact is umbrella is a very big money maker for insurance companies, but its sort of defense by offense. If you are at fault for an accident that hurts someone pretty badly and they go to an aggressive lawyer, first thing they will do is try to guess your net wealth and how it correlates to your insurance coverage. If they see you have an umbrella, they will quickly settle and for a lot less than your upper limit of coverage in most cases. If they see you don't have a lot of coverage they will shoot for the moon and hope to basically outspend you with legal fees until you lose a judgement for a lot more than your insurance covers.

[Cold Warrior]

Some PUP carriers require you to already have both car and home insurance with them. Most require only car insurance, but there are also carriers that will sell a stand alone policy (at a higher rate). Regardless, the PUP coverage is in addition to the liability coverage of your home and car insurance, and is only paid after these other coverages are exhausted.