Umbrella premium tripled!

[Amethyst]

Opened a bill from GEICO to learn that our personal liability umbrella premium is $1,227, a 300% increase from last year.

While we weren't too surprised at a 25% jump in our homeowner's premium - those have gone up all over Florida - we are flabbergasted at seeing our liability cost increase like this. Cannot think of anything that could have brought it on. The only "risky" thing we own is a swimming pool.

Anyone else seeing a big jump in their umbrella bill?

 

[Dash man]

No, I just renewed mine at $1,447, but it covers three cars and five homes, including a short term rental beach property in New Jersey and a beach condo in Florida. We use USLI.

 

[Amethyst]

Add: The enclosure itemizes the premium as home, auto, and $745 for "additional premium for additional coverage to $3M." So it sounds like GEICO doesn't like to offer more than $2M coverage, which is a rather small umbrella. Sounds like we need to find somebody else. Too bad we can't use USAA.

We have one (5-year-old) car, one house, no rentals.

Credit rating in the 800's.

 

[Out of Steam]

Opened a bill from GEICO to learn that our personal liability umbrella premium is $1,227, a 300% increase from last year.

Ours (State Farm) is a small fraction of that for $1 million, but we carry $250/$500K auto insurance limits and Virginia is not a plaintiff-friendly state.

 

[Ready]

Amica charges us $450 for $5 million.

 

[RetireeRobert]

Farmers Insurance charges me $182 for $1 million with underlying limits of $250/500,000 on auto and HO liability of $500,000.

I think I checked with Geico about three years ago for umbrella. They had quoted me on auto and HO but as soon as I said the word umbrella the rep said Geico doesn't do that in Oregon! So I think Geico is finicky about umbrella policies.

 

[winger]

2020 was our first year with Geico.

Our 1mil umbrella policy with Geico went up 34% from 2020 to 2021.

No claims, same vehicles and home as the year before. No rentals.

I didn't renew.

 

[SecondCor521]

Add: The enclosure itemizes the premium as home, auto, and $745 for "additional premium for additional coverage to $3M." So it sounds like GEICO doesn't like to offer more than $2M coverage, which is a rather small umbrella. Sounds like we need to find somebody else. Too bad we can't use USAA.

We have one (5-year-old) car, one house, no rentals.

Credit rating in the 800's.

Why can't you use USAA? I have a $1M umbrella with them right now, and I think they offer up to $5M.

ETA: Oh wait, I live in a different state, so that's probably it.

 

[Sunset]

Add: The enclosure itemizes the premium as home, auto, and $745 for "additional premium for additional coverage to $3M." So it sounds like GEICO doesn't like to offer more than $2M coverage, which is a rather small umbrella. Sounds like we need to find somebody else. Too bad we can't use USAA.

We have one (5-year-old) car, one house, no rentals.

Credit rating in the 800's.

Did they simply raise your coverage for you as a "proactive service" and would turn it down to 2M if you phoned ?

 

[Amethyst]

USAA told me my Dad's WWII service didn't count! He was in uniform for about a year, for special service as an electrician at an Army base. He had a minor disability that kept him out of regular service.

Why can't you use USAA? I have a $1M umbrella with them right now, and I think they offer up to $5M.

 

[braumeister]

it sounds like GEICO doesn't like to offer more than $2M coverage, which is a rather small umbrella.

Not just them; many companies cap their normal umbrella coverage at $2M. They raise both rates and underwriting requirements significantly above that level.

 

[MichaelB]

State Farm did that with me. The premium for $3M was substantially above the premium for $2M. It’s their way of telling us they really don’t want that extra $1M of business.

One significant but little mentioned factor in these price increases is the fall in interest rates. They make money from the reserves, that income has fallen and needs to be replaced.

 

[Lewis Clark]

I'm on the Board of Directors for my Homeowners Association. Our property manager told us recently that insurance agents are telling property management companies to expect large increases in premiums when policies are renewed this year.

Didn't really explain why.

 

[Dtail]

My umbrella is also a crazy premium of 2k in FLA for 2m of coverage, but also includes a 21 year old.

 

[Dash man]

USAA told me my Dad's WWII service didn't count! He was in uniform for about a year, for special service as an electrician at an Army base. He had a minor disability that kept him out of regular service.

USAA sent me to one of their partner companies, United States Liability Insurance (USLI), for umbrella coverage because of our Florida condo and Jersey Shore homes. At the time they weren’t writing policies in Florida or New Jersey. They just tried to bring us back, but quoted a policy about $50 higher than USLI. Maybe give them a try. You have to go through a broker though.

 

[donheff]

Our State Farm $2M policy is $178. We had Geico but when my daughter's then BF had a minor accident in her car (on our policy) their umbrella division kicked us off even thought the auto division didn't raise their rates. I dropped all Geico policies and consolidated at SF.

 

[razztazz]

Timely. It's that time o' the year. Any week now I should be getting my annual umbrella policy renewal stuff. I am also with GEICO. I'll post if I get anything unusual

 

[braumeister]

Mine just renewed recently (USAA) and was exactly the same as last year.

 

[sengsational]

A few years ago, I thought it would be good to increase my umbrella with Amica. I called and hit resistance. Lots of questions about why and what changed. I'm not sure I ever even got a price. Ended up staying at $1M. Fast forward to a month ago and they called me to review my coverages. They asked if I wanted to increase my umbrella! So if they suggested it, it's great, if I suggest it, it's not? I found it strange. I thought retirement assets had greater protection, so didn't buy more. Not too confident about that decision, but let it go this year at least.

 

[street]

^ I found that was the case for me when I started looking at buying an umbrella policy also. When I start looking I was in the process of reviewing my insurance so I was getting prices from 3 companies. I did get prices but it took weeks to get an answer and price of the umbrella policy. I always thought that being odd. I did purchase one and will have to check on price I pay for a 1M coverage. I believe just under 200$ and no increase as of now.

 

[ncbill]

Opened a bill from GEICO to learn that our personal liability umbrella premium is $1,227, a 300% increase from last year.

While we weren't too surprised at a 25% jump in our homeowner's premium - those have gone up all over Florida - we are flabbergasted at seeing our liability cost increase like this. Cannot think of anything that could have brought it on. The only "risky" thing we own is a swimming pool.

Anyone else seeing a big jump in their umbrella bill?

I wouldn't use GEICO for umbrella coverage simply because of changes in coverage (dropping coverages) as this poster notes:

https://www.bogleheads.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=331332

 

[Amethyst]

We've been with GEICO for about 5 years now. I'll call Monday and see if I get anything beyond "Well, costs have been going up, all those big awards you know..." as if GEICO were paying out wrongful-death awards left and right.

 

[fritz]

We've been with GEICO for about 5 years now. I'll call Monday and see if I get anything beyond "Well, costs have been going up, all those big awards you know..." as if GEICO were paying out wrongful-death awards left and right.

Went through the same thing with GEICO last renewal. Umbrella went up big time along with the car insurance (house with another company - best deal, go figure as we normally bundled them). Also contacted them, as the umbrella price increase was what I considered excessive (increase was +60%). They claimed pricing was inline with the market (don't expect us to do anything about our renewal pricing for you). Shopped around and brought car/house/umbrella for this year at just at or under last year's prices. Seems like we have to keep shopping around every year or so, as insurance companies only value prospects and not customers....

We get mail/emails from GEICO now asking us to come back, as we could save money.

 

[ERObjd]

Asked about umbrella insurance back when we bought our home in mid 90's . seemed like not worth the $$ especially on a home that was built in 1943 that we bought for 77K. worth about 140 now . Our total net worth would be well below 500K which is the starting point for which umbrella policy is recommended.

 

[Anna J]

We have 1M umbrella w/Geico and our bill went up just over 100%. I called and person I spoke to said that prices were going up because of the wildfires.