On the second day of our Disney trip, Jeff and I were headed to Epcot.  It was looking a bit rainy.  Sure enough my weather app confirmed a steady forecast of rain for the day.  On the shuttle ride over, I told Jeff that I thought we ought to grab an umbrella before we headed too far into the park.  His response was something like, “Oh, don’t worry about it.  I’m sure we’ll find something if we really need it.  You don’t want to have to carry it around especially if we don’t need it.”  I gave him that look that conveyed I wasn’t entirely convinced.  He just smiled back and said “Come, on where’s the adventure?!  If we get wet, we get wet.  No big deal!”

Needless to say an hour into our adventure it absolutely down poured.  The little shower that started out was no big deal but soon we found ourselves huddled under the cover of an outpost trying to wait it out.  It wasn’t letting up.  “I think we need an umbrella,” I said.  This time he agreed.  So we quickly darted from country to country in search of an umbrella.  It wasn’t as easy to find as we thought it would be.  We worked our way all the way back to Japan.  Our options were limited and I think Jeff’s first reaction to the large cane umbrella I found was NOT overwhelmingly positive.  “There’s nothing smaller?”  I held up a floral retractable umbrella.  He just pointed to my first pick, the cane umbrella.  Needless to say, it became one of our most memorable parts of the day and the umbrella soon became a part of our entire experience.  We were able to continue our adventure without getting soaked and we both had fun posing with it in every country.

Shortly after our return home Jeff made the comment to me that we needed to remind Ryan, his oldest son, to return the Gator (our utility vehicle) he borrowed from us.  The boys recently moved into a little house just down the road from us.  Which has become the location of many bonfires and parties.  “All we need is someone at their party tonight to wreck or get hurt or something.”  Scenario after scenario ran through my head.  “Oh my gosh!  Jeff!  We need umbrella insurance.  We can’t keep putting it off.”

Personal umbrella insurance isn’t as common as your other types of insurance policies yet it plays a critical role in your overall asset protection plan.  Umbrella insurance provides extra liability insurance.  So when the maximum of either your homeowner’s liability or auto liability limits are exceeded, umbrella insurance provides additional coverage, offsetting how much you may be responsible to pay for out of your own pocket.

You may not have ever paid that much attention to the amount of your liability limits.  We have a $500,000 liability limit (the maximum offered) on both our homeowners and auto policies.  While we’ve been comfortable with those amounts in the past, over time our assets have increased as well as our exposure to risk.

I can remember a time where the idea of someone suing you seemed so far from the realm of possibilities in our community of friends and family.  It’s sad to say, but times have changed and that risk is now a possibility.  Not only are lawsuits a threat but given the current cost of medical care if someone was injured on our property and needed ongoing medical treatment, the cost associated with the initial trauma combined with on-going care could absolutely exceed our existing liability limits.  It’s also common for us to host gatherings of friends and family, if there was an accident involving more than one person, our existing liability insurance wouldn’t stretch as far.  As scenario after scenario runs through my head of potential accidents and mishaps, I see a real need for us to consider adding a personal umbrella policy to our protection plan.

The good news is that its pretty affordable.  So unlike our Epcot experience we’re going to go ahead and get our umbrella now before we’re caught in a downpour, when we have much more to risk than just getting wet.