What Does Umbrella Insurance Cover?
A personal Delaware umbrella insurance policy will sit on top of the liability coverage up already have on your home and automobile, providing up, your family and your assets an extra level of protection. So, why would you need this extra layer of protection?
- Legal judgments for liability that exceed the underlying limits of liability insurance coverage provided by the DE policies on your home and cars. Put differently, the primary auto or home policy you have, would pay up to its limits, and the personal umbrella will pay for the overages, if any.
- It also covers if you, your child, or your pet cause another person; bodily injury, damage to property, or injury to the person in the form of slander or libel.
- Costs of defense lawyers and legal fees.
For example, what if you were driving and looked down to see a text, smashed into the vehicle in front of you and caused an accident that critically injured or killed someone? Most likely you would be sued for a higher amount than covered by your existing car insurance policy. If that were to happen, they could take your home, cars, belongings and future earnings.
So let’s say you had $100,000/$300,000 limits on your DE auto liability. But you hurt someone and were sued for $900,000. Where would the additional $800,000 come from? In this example if you had a $1,000,000 in Delaware umbrella insurance – after the $100,000 of auto liability was exhausted – the umbrella excess liability would kick in and pay the extra $800,000. If you didn’t have the umbrella you would be responsible to pay the 800k out of pocket.
Many people have the misconception that umbrella insurance policies are only meant for the rich. That is not accurate at all – just about anybody who could be subject to legal action due to causing serious injury to somebody – whether the injury is caused by your child, your pet, or you. For example, say your child’s friend was seriously injured while playing in your backyard, or your dog attacked your neighbor, or if a guest drown in your pool? The umbrella policy can help you to pay for the medical and legal costs without stealing your financial future.
What Delaware Umbrella Insurance Doesn’t Cover
Umbrella insurance typically does not cover:
- Judgment awarding compensation which exceeds the actual damages as a form of punishment for willful or malicious misconduct.
- Claims of liability regarding your business – that requires a business insurance policy.
How Much Does Delaware Umbrella Insurance Cost?
How much does umbrella insurance cost? It has been said the personal umbrella insurance is one of the best values in all liability insurance. While price is dependent upon the underlying risks (like having teenage drivers), the costs are usually under $400 or less per year for an extra one million in liability coverage.
Should I Buy An Delaware Umbrella Insurance Policy?
As you would with any kind of insurance policy, you should read the coverages and exclusions to find out if it’s the coverage you need. This will also help you to decide whether you want to simply increase the liability limits on your home and auto policies, or go for the extra liability limits of a personal umbrella policy.
The best way to do this is to compare the costs and coverage, make an assessment of your risk, and see if you think you need the extra coverage. This will help you to make an informed choice between upgrading the policies you already have or opting for the additional liability protection umbrella insurance offers you.
DE Umbrella Insurance Quotes
Request a Delaware Umbrella Insurance quote in Arden, Ardencroft, Ardentown, Bellefonte, Bethany Beach, Blades, Bowers, Bridgeville, Camden, Cheswold, Clayton, Dagsboro, Delaware City, Delmar, Dewey Beach, Dover, Ellendale, Elsmere, Felton, Fenwick Island, Frankford, Frederica, Georgetown, Greenwood, Harrington, Houston, Kenton, Laurel, Lewes, Little Creek, Magnolia, Middletown, Milford, Millsboro, Millville, Milton, New Castle, Newark, Newport, Ocean View, Odessa, Rehoboth Beach, Seaford, Selbyville, Slaughter Beach, Smyrna, South Bethany, Townsend, Wilmington, Wyoming and all other cities in DE.
Delaware Insurance Regulations
In the state of Delaware, there are certain regulations that are applicable to both personal and commercial insurance. There are actually tens of thousands of individual regulations, governing everything from the amount of assets or cash an insurance company must have per policy to how insurance companies can advertise, but the list of regulations that you need to know about is thankfully a lot smaller.
DE Commercial Insurance
Commercial insurance, also known as general liability insurance, protects a business and their customers in a variety of ways. One form of general liability coverage is bodily insurance which is physical damage to anyone on your premises other than employees.
Employees are covered under another type of insurance called Worker's Compensation. In addition, general liability can cover properly damage, protect you from personal injury suits, advertising injuries and provide legal defense and payment for judgments.
Delaware is not one of the states where commercial insurance is required to operate a business. Delaware is a modified comparative fault state with a 51% negligence standard. There are no caps on awards for personal injury suits in Delaware and the statute of limitations for filing after something happens is two years.
As for how much insurance you should carry in Delaware, there is no clear answer. The best thing to do is to research the type of business you have and what kinds of lawsuits are possible, as well as what the payouts for those lawsuits usually turns out to be, so that you can see how much liability coverage you should carry.
Delaware Personal Insurance
There are a few different types of personal insurance available for consumers, but the only one that has any sort of regulation that you need to know about is auto insurance. There are laws in place governing how much liability insurance you are required to carry in Delaware. However, there are no regulations that consumers need to be aware of when it comes to life insurance, flood insurance or various other types of available insurance.
As for the auto insurance regulations, the state of Delaware requires you to carry auto insurance that pays as a result of an accident that was your fault. The limits are known as 15 000 USD /30 000 USD /10 000 USD. That means that you are required to have 15 000 USD per person or 30 000 USD per accident in your auto insurance coverage. You will also need to have an additional 10 000 USD for property damage.