subject: Umbrella Excess Liability Insurance Coverage [print this page] Umbrella excess liability insurance coverage is an important insurance premium for any business. Insurance coverages are of many types and this is just one of them. Some coverages are optional while others are compulsory.
To have a better understanding of excess liability coverage, one should know what liability coverage is. It is an insurance premium that offers protection to the policy holder against bodily injury or damage to property to third parties. Third parties are other people.
People whose activities expose others to risk of injuries or losses are supposed to take out a liability premium. Constructors, manufacturers, employers and drivers are included in this category. The coverage makes cash available readily for compensation of any complainants.
Liability premium coverage pays for the costs of any law suits the insured may face for negligence. It also compensates a third party on behalf of the coverage holder. It settles all the money the holder is held responsible for. It however pays up to the set limit by the insurance coverage.
A court may sometimes award a 3rd party more compensation than what the limit of the liability policy entails. For instance, the liability coverage can be five million dollars. The policy holder is then taken to court by a third party and the judge decides the compensation should be ten million dollars. The premium holder has to pay the 5 million dollar excess. This could be devastating financially to the company.
This is where umbrella excess coverage comes in. This is a form of insurance that provides additional coverage when the business exceeds insurance limits on existing policies. It comes as a single insurance premium that adds another layer of protection to any other liability policies the business may have. These include employer's liability, auto insurance, general liability among others.
Such coverage is an affordable way of getting higher policy limits on several other business insurance policies. It fills the gaps in coverage under basic liability policies. The coverage pays the excess amount of money being demanded on behalf of the insured. If money is required for any law suits after underlying limits are eroded, the umbrella coverage pays for them too. It pays up to the limit set by the umbrella coverage.
Umbrella excess liability insurance is not mandatory. However, it is a coverage that home owners, business owners and others could consider. People are now getting more and more aware of their civil rights. Being sued for negligence is therefore quite easy. A court can also award more compensation to a 3rd party than the limit covered by your liability policy. An umbrella coverage could cushion you from such a disaster.
by: Bill Underwooda
welcome to Insurances.net (https://www.insurances.net)
