Umbrella coverage and golf carts

[RetiredHappy]

Have you checked with an agent who represents Travelers? I suspect they aren't going to be interested in your house coverage, but might do the car and excess. It seems they consider a golf cart a recreational vehicle and from what I can tell, include coverage for them.

Travelers insurance, surprisingly, does not get golf cart coverage for homeowners. They sponsor PGA tournaments and run a ton of ads. We have Travelers for home, auto and umbrella. When I enquired about golf cart insurance, it was $1200 per golf cart. I decided to go with a different carrier for under $100 for 2 golf carts.

 

[38Chevy454]

......when they realized we had a golf cart with rear-facing rear seats.

Just fold the rear seat down so it makes the small flatbed carrying area No more rear facing passengers

 

[pletal]

This makes no sense to me, the total layman on this stuff. They’ll give you an umbrella policy if you have a jet ski or a four wheeler off road vehicle and they won’t if you have a golf cart? These insurance companies are little different than a criminal enterprise.

It all depends. Amica would not give me an umbrella policy because I have jet skis. Cincinnati did, but limits are high. My motorcycles are insured with someone else but the limits are high there also. I had to send Cincinnati a copy of my motorcycle policy.

 

[Scuba]

Just fold the rear seat down so it makes the small flatbed carrying area No more rear facing passengers

Love it! Unfortunately they've already made up their minds though.

 

[Sunset]

If it's truly the rear facing seats that are the issue, can't you remove them (would have to prove they are removed probably). To solve the insurance issue ?

You could put in a shelf, basket, or cooler and boom box in place of the seat.

 

[Scuba]

If it's truly the rear facing seats that are the issue, can't you remove them (would have to prove they are removed probably). To solve the insurance issue ?

You could put in a shelf, basket, or cooler and boom box in place of the seat.

Creative solution, but one of the main reasons we like the idea of having it is that when guests come, it’s fun to take them around the neighborhood in it. Also I think it would kill the opportunity to resell it as golf carts with rear-facing rear seats are the most popular type. They do make golf carts with front-facing rear seats but they are much longer and may not fit in a golf cart sized garage.

 

[Aerides]

I was surprised when I moved to FL that it was not possible in the market we purchased in to get one carrier for all insurance.

We have State Farm for all three (house/car/umbrella) and the multi-line discount helps. For home, though, they are the broker, but Citizens is the actual underwriter. (no golf cart so I can't help you there).

 

[Sunset]

Creative solution, but one of the main reasons we like the idea of having it is that when guests come, it’s fun to take them around the neighborhood in it. Also I think it would kill the opportunity to resell it as golf carts with rear-facing rear seats are the most popular type. They do make golf carts with front-facing rear seats but they are much longer and may not fit in a golf cart sized garage.

The seats could be removed and later replaced when it's time to sell.

I suppose rear facing seats are easy to fall out of, which is why the ins company doesn't like them..

 

[athena53]

I suppose rear facing seats are easy to fall out of, which is why the ins company doesn't like them..

OK, now I'm seeing some nasty liability scenarios. Driver stops quickly (maybe due to a collision) or overturns the cart and passengers end up in the street, maybe under the golf cart. Driver hits a pedestrian or a bicyclist. Collision with motorcycle.

I was in the insurance business for too long.

 

[Mark1]

I suppose rear facing seats are easy to fall out of, which is why the ins company doesn't like them..

This is true for sure. However, the more important issue is that the back seat is not for playing golf, but for dinken around.

As Aaron Gordon (NBA player) stated when his dog recently bite him after too much eggnog "For lack of better words, I was (messing) around with my dog, and when you (mess) around, you find out."

The same thing likely applies to back facing seats in golf carts and the insurance company know this.

 

[misanman]

My 88-year old sister and her husband had difficulty walking to DGS's wedding in a vineyard and the vineyard offered to take them there in a golf cart with rear facing seats. The crowd gasped when they very nearly were dumped out as the cart started up and then later when they hit a bump. Seat belts would have been great in that scenario.

 

[freedomatlast]

Umbrella coverage attaches to auto, not homeowners. It is possible to buy standalone umbrella policies, but they cost 2-3 times what our previous umbrella insurance cost.

That's strange. Mine attaches to both auto and home, and also attaches to my rental properties.

 

[athena53]

That's strange. Mine attaches to both auto and home, and also attaches to my rental properties.

I agree- my umbrella coverage is also excess over Auto AND Homeowners. I never heard of one that was excess over Auto only. You could get that just by buying an Auto policy with very high limits (most companies will write $1 million or $2 million). It's good to have the Umbrella attached to your Homeowners as well if you have a pool with a diving board or a large dog.

 

[48Fire]

OK, now I'm seeing some nasty liability scenarios. Driver stops quickly (maybe due to a collision) or overturns the cart and passengers end up in the street, maybe under the golf cart. Driver hits a pedestrian or a bicyclist. Collision with motorcycle.

I was in the insurance business for too long.

We were in our golf cart waiting at a light behind a family in another golf cart. 3 kids in the back, no seat belts. Dad accelerates and one kid falls out the back, hits his head on the step, then the road. Fortunately we don't run him over.

 

[FlaGator]

I'm in a popular vacation area of the FL Panhandle. I bought a 6-seat "street legal LSV" (golf cart). Full seat belts, lights, DOT windshield. All that added about $3K to the price back in 2016.

In FL, street legal LSVs are limited to 35 mph speed limit roads, so I could only run around the not-small neighborhood and go from home to places on the beach. Average round trip was less than 3 miles.

Insurance was horrible. Geico wouldn't write it, paid as much with Progressive as I did for the kid driving a 10 y.o. car, but State Farm was better. Insurance costs were definitely high due to the young drivers at home.

Did more trips taking the kids to the bus stop than anything else. When they could drive, they never used it. The ex would take it to the beach, but only did the few mile RT to the beach 3-4 times/month. Sold the cart the same month she moved .

It was a few years of fun, but between the cost of insurance and taking up space in the garage I wanted for the motorcycle, I was glad to get rid of it.

I hope your experience is better, Scuba.

 

[Kings over Queens]

Travelers insurance, surprisingly, does not get golf cart coverage for homeowners. They sponsor PGA tournaments and run a ton of ads. We have Travelers for home, auto and umbrella. When I enquired about golf cart insurance, it was $1200 per golf cart. I decided to go with a different carrier for under $100 for 2 golf carts.

My experience is that Progressive seems to be the most interested in primary golf cart coverage. they are considered recreational vehicles, so most carriers who write "toys" will write golf carts.

 

[Kings over Queens]

The agent who sold us our current Travelers policy is the one I've been dealing with. Travelers wrote our auto and umbrella originally, but sent a letter of cancellation when they realized we had a golf cart with rear-facing rear seats.

it's got to be the rear facing seats.

 

[maestro]

...... These insurance companies are little different than a criminal enterprise.

+1

 

[Scuba]

I agree- my umbrella coverage is also excess over Auto AND Homeowners. I never heard of one that was excess over Auto only. You could get that just by buying an Auto policy with very high limits (most companies will write $1 million or $2 million). It's good to have the Umbrella attached to your Homeowners as well if you have a pool with a diving board or a large dog.

You and Freedomatlast are correct in that a certain level of liability coverage must be maintained on both auto and homeowners to be able to get the umbrella, and it would cover excess liability on both. What I meant was that our current umbrella is written by the same carrier as our auto insurance, and our broker said that in our area of FL this is typically the case.

In any event, I was finally able to get an alternate quote for both auto and umbrella from a company called Auto Owners. It is a lot more than what we were paying with Travelers, but that’s not relevant since we can’t get what we had anymore. It is also somewhat more than we would pay if we keep Travelers for auto and just buy a standalone umbrella policy (hard to say exactly how much more because the Travelers auto is only a six month policy and we don’t know what it will renew for, whereas the Auto Owners is an annual policy).

I agree with sentiments of others that having as much of the coverage with one carrier is beneficial rather than splitting it between two or three carriers. However, this seems to come at a price (strangely, even with a multi-policy discount, it would still be $500-$1000 cheaper annually to split the coverage among 3 carriers). I researched Auto Owners, and though I hadn’t previously heard of them, they seem to be well-regarded and stable.

Would you pay $500-$1000 more annually to reduce the number of carriers, or just split it up between 3 carriers?

 

[Teacher Terry]

I have my auto and home policies with 2 different companies because that’s the cheapest way to do it.

 

[athena53]

Would you pay $500-$1000 more annually to reduce the number of carriers, or just split it up between 3 carriers?

No, in your case splitting sounds like the reasonable solution.

 

[pjigar]

This makes no sense to me, the total layman on this stuff. They’ll give you an umbrella policy if you have a jet ski or a four wheeler off road vehicle and they won’t if you have a golf cart? These insurance companies are little different than a criminal enterprise.

It makes sense because golf carts are driven mainly on roads surrounded by people, cars and houses. Anything off-road or water craft has a significantly less probability of hurting others or damaging others' property.

 

[donheff]

My daughter-in-law rents one at the beach and I drive it a lot. I guess I can take comfort in the fact that we are much more likely to be injured than others.

 

[CBR900RR]

I have a 1 million dollars umbrella coverage for my primary residence, rental apt and 2 cars all under the same carrier, I also have a sport bike insured under a different carrier but I did not report or listed it under the umbrella policy, do you think it will affect my umbrella coverage other than my motorcycle?

 

[engineernerd]

I have a 1 million dollars umbrella coverage for my primary residence, rental apt and 2 cars all under the same carrier, I also have a sport bike insured under a different carrier but I did not report or listed it under the umbrella policy, do you think it will affect my umbrella coverage other than my motorcycle?

Better start by reading your umbrella policy documents - all of them - carefully. The policy itself and any riders. Look hard for you-must-tell-us wording...