This is a small piece of housekeeping that quietly decides whether your umbrella works when you need it. It takes ten minutes and almost nobody does it.
Why does the schedule matter?
An umbrella extends liability over the risks it knows about. When a carrier prices your policy, they are pricing a specific list — these homes, these vehicles, these drivers, this rental property. A risk that is not on the list is a risk the carrier never underwrote.
So when a client buys a beach house in Delaware, adds a car for a child at college, or starts renting out a condo, that change needs to reach the umbrella. It is usually a small premium adjustment. Adding a rental property to an existing umbrella is often a modest annual increase — far less than most people expect, and immeasurably cheaper than discovering the gap after a claim.
What if the property is insured elsewhere?
That happens constantly, and it is fine. Plenty of my clients have a Florida condo or an inherited family property insured by a local carrier. We can still extend your umbrella over it, but I need the declarations page from that policy so the carrier can confirm the underlying liability limits meet their requirement.
The same applies in reverse. When you sell a property or dispose of a vehicle, tell me, so we remove it and you stop paying for it.
What I recommend
- Once a year, list every property, vehicle, boat and trailer your household owns, and compare it to your umbrella schedule.
- Send me the declarations page for anything insured by another carrier.
- Tell me about drivers as well as vehicles — children away at school, in-laws living with you, and household staff who drive.
- Tell me when something is sold, not just when something is bought.
The short version
An umbrella responds to the risks the carrier knows about. Review the schedule once a year, send me declarations pages for anything insured elsewhere, and tell me when you buy or sell a property or a vehicle. Adding a rental property to an existing umbrella is often a modest annual increase, and immeasurably cheaper than discovering the gap after a claim.
Send me your current schedule and I will tell you what is missing.
