Russet

We used AIG Travel Guard Worldwide assistance for expats

https://www.travelguardworldwide.com...box/relocation
when we first relocated many years ago. They were very helpful in securing reasonable auto insurance policies for us.

newadventure

Is Umbrella insurance something that is part of auto insurance, house insurance or something completely separate?

Glasgow Girl

Separate but complementary. it kicks in if your home, auto, boat (or some business policies) do not cover the total damages being sought from a third party and can cover situations not covered by the aforementioned policies. It can be thought of a personal liability policy for any number of scenarios, usually recommended if you have a high risk of being targeted for a law suit, examples being if you have a high net worth, you rent out property, or any other situation where you could be liable for someone being injured due to your perceived negligence. Almost all insurance companies offer them for a very reasonable cost. Never heard of having to get permission until now, it’s usually a routine sale.

newadventure

Thanks Glasgow Girl - i worded my question poorly. Should i look to include it with my auto insurance when i renew or home insurance or do it separately (or get quotes from all of the above)?

PetrifiedExPat

I have a sob story. Rear ended someone in a CRV 4 years ago, then scratched 15k worth of damage into a E350 last year.

Our 6 month Geico policy for a 22 E350 and a 21 GLE is now 4600 USD.

Yes, im a nob

Glasgow Girl

You can usually get it anytime you feel like it, it is a separate policy but for a variety of reasons it makes sense to go with whoever you insure with normally. I would discuss the current coverage limits on your existing policies with your agent as well as the risk of those limits being exceeded in a worse case scenario before purchasing umbrella insurance. We used to have it and stopped after reviewing our coverage limits on our other policies and determining that our risk was adequately covered because of very high liability coverage on those policies.

Pulaski

As I understand it, umbrella policies are only available as an add-on to your home or renters insurance (not sure about auto policies), because it is an added dollar amount of liability coverage on top of an existing amount of liability coverage. So the umbrella coverage would only come into play if your existing liability coverage was exhausted, and the insurance company would have already done all the paperwork and investigation when someone sued you for $750,000, when your home policy only had $500,000 of liability coverage. So the umbrella premium just covers a greater payout with minimal additional administrative effort by the insurance company over what was required to process the maxed-out $500,000 claim on your home policy.

PetrifiedExPat

Correct

PetrifiedExPat

V likely not correct

MidAtlantic

I think that umbrella insurance can be purchased independently eg https://www.rlicorp.com/personal-umbrella-insurance

However, I would not want it to be handled by another insurer. It gives yet another opportunity for disputes. I have my auto. homeowners and umbrella all with the same company.

Glasgow Girl

Yes, umbrella insurance can be bought independently from the company or companies providing auto or home insurance. It does complicate things however when there is a claim. The company providing the umbrella policy will have requirements of the underlying policies, but it can be done, and some people do it that way if the premium and/or coverage of an independent company is more to their liking. Some companies will only provide umbrella insurance if you have at least one other policy with them but others will provide regardless, perhaps that’s where the discrepancy is.

AlanD

Im now just over 2 years into living in the US and recently upgrade from a piece of sh*t 05' Honda to nice shinny new car, which required me going from what we know as 3rd party to fully comp. They wanted $1600 for 6 months on a 17' GLE. I called them yup to have a chat about the price and turns out Progressive will honour my UK driving experience so rather than being a "new" driver in their eyes (my US license is only 2 years old) I was now a "regular" driver with 20 years experience. I also adjusted my annual milage slightly (not much a 2,000 less) and along with uninsured coverage which I added (as I didnt have it before) it went down to $1000. Thats $1200 a year off with adding my UK dirving experience (that doesnt include no claims discount, as was mentioned at the start, I cant see any US company honouring this).

Give them a call and explain you have UK driving history, see what they say, whats the worst than can happen.

Good luck and welcome.