Accidents can happen anytime, any place and to anyone. It’s a simple fact of life.
Perhaps your teenager runs a stop sign and hits another vehicle – or worse, a person. Or a delivery person takes a spill on your property and is seriously injured. Maybe it’s a guest who suffers a minor injury, but who has to miss work because of it.
Situations like these – big and small – consistently occur; and they can cost in the millions of dollars through jury awards and out-of-court settlements.
It’s why having the right insurance, and enough of it, is essential to protecting yourself and your family from those rainy days when unforeseen situations present themselves, explains Christina Martin, Vice President of KRGinsure.
Standard liability insurance includes policies such as homeowners, renters, automobile, and watercraft. But there are limits to what these policies cover.
Should you be found legally responsible for injuring someone or damaging their property, anything beyond the limits of your standard liability insurance coverage will come out of your own pocket, which is why an umbrella liability policy is critical in today’s world.

“We recommend protecting yourself and your assets with an umbrella liability policy,” says Christina. “Like an umbrella that protects you from the rain, a personal umbrella liability policy provides an extra layer of insurance coverage over your standard liability policies. It protects your personal assets by kicking in when your standard liability coverage is exhausted.”
When deciding how much protection to get, it’s vital to consider both total personal assets and potential personal risks.
Questions to ask yourself include, do you run a business out of your home – with clients and employees visiting frequently? Does your profession or the location of your home make you an easy target for a big settlement?
The answers to these questions, and similar ones, are important to determine your personal risks and to evaluate the amount of additional liability coverage that makes the most sense for you.
“Start at $1 million, and go as high as $5 million,” suggests Christina. “When considering the value of the umbrella policy, discuss your personal needs with your KRGinsure representative. Your insurance broker will review the policy with you to ensure the limits match your needs.”

Commercial Coverage
Running your own business means taking lots of risks: financial and personal being at the forefront.
Protecting your investment of time, money, and emotions is vital to avoiding potential disaster: some financially draining claims and lawsuits have literally caused businesses to shut down.
Excess liability insurance – umbrella insurance for commercial purposes – protects your business from holes or limits in existing policy coverage. Much like a personal umbrella policy, the commercial version adds an extra layer of protection which has the potential to save your business.
Standard commercial insurance includes general liability, business auto, employer liability, and professional liability.
Adding the excess liability insurance is done by businesses for coverage of exceptionally large events or losses with low probabilities of occurrence.
To illustrate how this excess liability insurance helps, consider a situation where a jury ordered a business to pay $3 million in damages for a liability claim. Your general liability policy has a $2 million limit. This would normally require that company to cover the additional $1 million out of pocket.

However, with a $4 million excess liability insurance policy, the $2 million commercial policy would exhaust itself, and then the umbrella policy would cover the outstanding $1 million.
“Without umbrella coverage, these events – albeit few and far between in most cases – would be financially devastating to many companies,” explains Christina. “Every company can benefit from the extended coverage, which comes at a relatively small additional cost. The amount of coverage needed will always depend on the total value of your assets.”
As well as covering unforeseen costs, excess liability insurance also provides coverage in areas not included with existing policies. An effective policy can save your business money and cover more assets by using fewer individual policies.
However, depending on your policy, some coverage exclusions could exist. These may include employment practices liability, professional liability, and product recall coverage.
The best way to find the right coverage for yourself, your business – or both – is to do an extensive review with a KRGinsure representative.
“We can assess your coverage needs and address specific risk categories,” says Christina. “We want to protect your business from exposures and go over the fine print, so there are no surprises.”
TEXT CHRIS OCCHIUZZI