Looking for Umbrella Policy, but no one will bite w/ me owning a kit car

[Bster13]

I am buying a Super Stalker at the end of the month and I will be insuring the car with Hagerty most likely. I'm good to go on that front. But...

 

 

Now that I'm a bit older and own some assets, I'd like to obtain an umbrella policy to cover all of them.

 

If it were just my house and my daily driver, no sweat...I'd even get a multi-line discount between the 3 policies (Car, House, Umbrella). But since I have a kit car, and that is a huge unknown for big insurance companies, they won't insure my DD, my house, and my kit car with an umbrella policy all together....even if Hagerty insures the kit car separately, the Umbrella policy insurance company won't cover the kit car under the umbrella policy because the kit car is an unknown and that leaves then potentially exposed.

 

So they are basically offering me an umbrella with a huge hole in it (no kit car wrapped in). haha

 

Any ideas? Who's gone through this before?

 

Thanks!

[Kitcat]

My umbrella policy covers everything, its w/State Farm.

[MHKflyer52]

Check with State Farm Ins as they were the only company that I could find that would cover multiple properties and cars owned by me in more than one state all on the same policy. They were not as expensive as the company you indicated and even have better coverage for my money but that is just my belief and besides I can walk into my agents office whenever I have a question which I do not think you can do with the other company and yes I have used the other company and never had to file a claim with either of them.

[Bster13]

@KitCat Good to know, I'll investigate with my agent....

 

With State Farm, if you total your 7, are you guaranteed the stated value on the policy, or do they do some sort of valuation (look at depreciation, look at other similar cars value on the market etc.) and there's a chance you won't get your stated value? W/ hagertys...what you insure for is what they hand you a check for if it 's deemed totaled...no funny business.

[pksurveyor]

Allstates used to cover my house, Lexus, Lotus Esprit, and Caterham plus a separate umbrella policy. Last month I switched the Lotus and Cateham to Hagerty and Allstates now only carries the house, Lexus, and umbrella. There is one minor detail, Allstates requires the amount of auto coverage to be more than the minimum state requirement to issue the umbrella policy,

[drew...]

Met covers 4 cars, including Caterham, home, separate garage plus umbrella - no mileage restrictions. (Probably helped that the underwriter who reviewed the policy prior to it being accepted new what a Caterham was)

[Bster13]

It's great to hear of companies like AllState, State Farm, and Met giving umbrella policies covering your 7 as well, but I'm still curious....

 

 

If you total your 7, do you get the stated value (what you told the insurance agent you thought it was worth and what it was insured for)? Or do they go look for other 7 replicas for sale in your area, yada, yada and fudge you something less? With Hagerty, you are guaranteed the value you state it is (within reason...they won't insure a rust bucket ford escort for $50k) and the policy is written for........

[bsimon]

My house with Farmers, all cars including the Seven for stated value with Progressive.

 

Auto Owners Insurance wrote a 2M umbrella policy for me with no problems or exceptions.

[Croc]

This is a very sensible question - most people do not understand their liability exposures until they have a claim that exceeds their car/home policy upper limits.

 

The big caution for you here is that insurance is state dependent. I work in the insurance field so I get to see this mess every day. For example, Allstate and Met will not touch our Sevens in NJ but will in other states. Safeco is another company that is very helpful with insuring our cars but only does so in about 30 states (unfortunately not NJ but does CT).

 

I have agreed value comprehensive car insurance on my Caterham through State Farm. The agreed value is subject to an annual indexing at my option at time of renewal. However, that was only after I had extensive negotiations with the State Farm NJ underwriters. I also have an umbrella policy via Chubb Insurance masterpiece product. They only sell via agents but you can find a CT agent on the Chubb website close to your zip code. If you have problems I can get a referral via my NJ agent (they are not licensed in CT). State Farm also offerred an umbrella to me but it would not cover my overseas assets. Chubb also insures Sevens on an inflation adjusted agreed value basis but they were more expensive than State Farm.

 

Another option instead of Hagerty is Grundy. I found their Grundy's NJ policies had better terms and conditions and allowed more driving flexibility and usage. Hagerty policies in NJ hardly allowed you to drive the car for anything but a car club event if you read the fine print.

[Kitcat]

Agreed value-in my case $22K. My history w/SF has been excellent:

 

#1-A co-driver wrecked my Miata whilst we were auto-x'ing. SF paid

everything, even tho I explained how accident occurred.

 

#2-My 1 year old Accord w/12K miles and a few dents was caught in a flood and totaled. SF paid $1K more than the purchase price of the car (I had made a good deal and apparently book value was above what I paid).

 

#3-My son wrecked our dented, beater, high-mileage mini-van. I had ck'd value and it looked like abt $2K tops, SF paid me $5K.

[Jim Gunther]

AGREED VALUE - If your agent can't explain the difference, get another agent.

 

(Having been in the insurance claim business , I can tell you most claim understandings come from the fact that the agent mumbled something that "sounded" like you had coverage that turned out to be less than one assumed. "Actual Cash Value" being the most egregious example.)

 

Meantime, I have Hagerty's Agreed Value $22.5 on my Stalker and Liberty Mutual on my Umbrella Liability policy. Liberty has my house and other car but would not insure (on a primary basis) the Lotus 7 Replicar (It's not their area or expertise). Of course ANY Umbrella policy will require one to carry much higher than minimum legal limits in the primary/underlying policys (Homeowners and Auto Policies). I am surprised any main-line insurer (Liberty is as conservative as they come) is balking about covering (subject to underlying primary auto) a Seven car. (Unless there is an accident history or a young driver.)