(800) 253-1482Personal Liability Coverage Helps Protect Texans and Their Families
When you or a member of your household cause a loss to someone else by accident, you’ll have to find a way to make things right. This can be the case in a variety of situations including your child accidentally causing damage to your neighbor’s property or a visitor hurting themselves while visiting your home. At the end of the day, without the right protections in place, you’ll be facing a financial hurdle to restoring the loss. Personal liability coverage is a financial safeguard that covers the members of your home from having to pay out of pocket in the aftermath of such events.
What Is Personal Liability Coverage in Texas?
Personal liability coverage comes in many different shapes and forms in Texas, but overall, is a protection against your finances when it’s time to restore someone else’s loss. This could mean a busted window on a home, bodily injury caused by your pet, and much more.
The main ways that personal liability insurance coverage protects you is when you’re being held liable for damage to someone’s property, need to cover medical costs involving bodily injury, or both. You can also cover legal expenses that may come from lawsuits involving the incident.
Different Types of Personal Liability Coverage
Many different types of coverage can include personal liability coverage as a part of their overall protection. Let’s dive into this umbrella term a bit more to better understand how personal liability insurance can protect you:
Personal Liability Homeowners Insurance
Homeowners insurance is protection made up of many different coverages. While the largest part of most standard homeowners insurance policies will be Coverage A and focus on your home’s structure, an important part of your protection is focused on managing liability.
There are coverages in place that will help you restore the medical expenses of people who are injured on your property while visiting, and even protections around members of your household causing a loss to another’s health or property.
If you are sued, you may be able to cover some legal expenses, however, it’s important to note that policy limits do apply. Once you’ve exceeded the amount of liability coverage you hold, the rest will need to come from your own pockets to restore any financial losses involved.
A renters, condo, or landlord insurance policy may also have a form of personal liability coverage specific to covering the medical expenses of those who visit the property and become injured. It’s important to note that in all of these cases, the medical bills of those who live within your home are not covered and will need health insurance for coverage.
What Isn’t Covered by Personal Liability Insurance
As with any insurance policy, personal liability insurance isn’t a blanket coverage and some exclusions exist that aren’t included. Again, injuries that happen to you and the other members of your home are excluded, but here are some other examples:
- A loss to another party caused by intentional means is not covered. This means if your child vandalizes your neighbor’s home or if you get into a fight, don’t expect insurance to cover it.
- Vehicles aren’t covered by personal liability coverage, but thankfully drivers can still protect themselves. Liability coverage through your car insurance helps restore losses involved with driving. It’s not an option either. In Texas, drivers must carry liability coverage to remain legal while driving.
- Incidents involving watercraft, RVs, or aircraft may also be excluded. You’ll need to have the right forms of insurance relative to these activities, such as boat insurance or RV insurance, and disclose such use to your insurance provider to stay protected.
- Business-related incidents aren’t covered by personal liability insurance. You’ll need to look into a variety of business insurance options, including commercial auto insurance, when performing a task for your company to stay protected.
Additional exceptions may apply as all insurance policies are different. To best understand your policy when you enroll, our agents are here to help!
Umbrella Insurance Is a Financial Safety Net
Personal liability doesn’t stop just because of a policy limit. When there are extenuating circumstances, things can become expensive quickly. An umbrella policy is there to be an extra safety net to help protect your finances in the event you are facing liability concerns.
The good news is that umbrella insurance is very affordable and provides a large amount of protection. The bad news is that you cannot purchase umbrella insurance on its own as it acts as a supplementary policy. You’ll need to purchase a home, auto, renters, or landlord insurance policy before you can purchase umbrella coverage.
There are also guidelines for purchasing umbrella insurance. For example, if you are a homeowner, you’ll need to purchase the maximum amount of personal liability coverage available before purchasing an umbrella policy. Should you happen to suffer a loss, your umbrella insurance policy would kick in after you’ve exhausted the limits of your personal liability coverage.
For only a few hundred dollars a year, you can receive as much as $1 million in umbrella coverage. Often believed to be a protection for the affluent, umbrella coverage is a great option for anyone.
Yes, those with more assets often require greater protection, but the rising costs of medical expenses, labor costs, and legal expenses mean that policy limits can be exceeded much easier than ever before. Umbrella coverage is an important consideration for all.
How Much Personal Liability Coverage Do I Need?
The exact amount of personal liability coverage you’ll need will vary from home to home. You’ll want to make sure that whatever the coverage amount you possess, you can afford to cover all of your assets. This includes physical and financial assets that could be targeted in the event of a lawsuit.
According to the Insurance Information Institute (III), most homeowners insurance policies come with $100,000 in protection against liabilities. You can increase these limits, however, it’s important to remember that in doing so, you’ll be paying more for your premiums. Homeowners should assess their risks when speaking with their insurance agent.
Personal Liability Coverage Built for Texans
Liability protection may take many forms, but getting the right coverage for the lowest price can be simple. Freedom Insurance Group has helped Texans protect their finances through a variety of insurance products since 2005. Our clients save an average of 40%. Here’s how we do it:
- Our insurance center provides our clients with over 25 top-rated insurance providers to choose from. This allows us to compare your coverage and identify the cheapest insurance products for your needs.
- Because we work with various insurance brands, we can provide our customers with more options. Having more options provides a better opportunity for protection and savings through bundling.
- We take the time to identify your coverage needs on a personal level. This means assessing your risks so that you receive the right level of coverage to keep you protected without overpaying.
- The established relationships we have with our network of insurance providers also maximize your potential for saving money through a wide variety of discounts.
From homeowners insurance policies to umbrella coverage and more, we have plenty of options meant to fit your needs. Ask an agent to get started today or use one of our online tools for a free, no-obligation quote on various personal liability coverage products:
