Whats Your Pitch For Personal Umbrellas

[DiegoInsGuy]

Hi

Just trying to see what some good sales pitches are for Umbrella policies..What scenarios do you give clients that help them to see the need for it. Remember this is for personal lines insurance (home,auto)

Thanks

 

[Tahoe Ray]

Hi

Just trying to see what some good sales pitches are for Umbrella policies..What scenarios do you give clients that help them to see the need for it. Remember this is for personal lines insurance (home,auto)

Thanks

I don't sell P&C but I attended a breakout at a conference last year where this was the topic.

The speaker was an attorney and he spent the entire presentation on your likelihood of being sued and how an umbrella provides a level of protection (especially since you can often settle easier) that is unmatched.

I'm not sure if that helps but it was an hour long and the whole thing was case study after case study on people being sued for the stupidest things and how they were settled (relatively) easily due to their umbrella coverage.

When asked how much coverage he recommends, he said as much as you are offered...

 

[Aram Fingal]

The easiest way I have found to sell an umbrella is to sell them one with an un/underinsured motorist rider. It's a lot easier to sell them $1 million in direct protection for them and their family than it is to convince them that $1 million coverage for the damage they do to others is actually protection for themselves.

That being said, people with a high net worth usually tend to see the value in the liability protection right away, and the UIM rider just makes it that much more attractive to them.

 

[BWB]

Hi

Just trying to see what some good sales pitches are for Umbrella policies..What scenarios do you give clients that help them to see the need for it. Remember this is for personal lines insurance (home,auto)

Thanks

Tell them a true story that happened with one of my customers. A very stable family had 2 well behaved sons. They did well academically and never got into trouble. Their parents decided to let the two boys take the family car to go on spring break in Florida during their junior/senior year. They were allowed to take their two best friends with them. This particular customer has an umbrella policy as well as his auto and home through my agency.

When the two boys got to Florida, they did what typical teenagers do. Party and get drunk. The parents did not realize this and assumed everything was okay. One of the brothers passed out in his motel room while the other was out getting drunk. One of the friends [drunk] who went down with them took the keys to the car to go out and get more alcohol. He crossed the center line and killed two teenagers in another car on impact.

Long story short, even though my clients sons did not give permission to the friend to drive, the judge essentially said, "When you hand over your keys, you hand over your insurance card along with it."

Somehow, my clients 1 million dollar umbrella covered attorney costs as well as payments to the family of the dead teenagers.

I was in shock when my client called me and told me this. He then said, "One million dollars is not enough coverage. I need three million."

True story.
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Just ask the client...would you rather be covered and not need it or would you rather be not covered and need it.

 

[Milkman1265]

do you guys think personal umbrella is really undersold? 95% of my clients do not have umbrella and dont even know what it is.

Very hard to explain it to them, when they got state min. car insurance and 2-3 rental buildings in nyc. each building usually is worth 800k.

They wont raise their coverage for the car to satisfy getting an umbrella. They are open to buying the umbrella but wont raise their coverage.

 

[AZDave]

Hi

Just trying to see what some good sales pitches are for Umbrella policies..What scenarios do you give clients that help them to see the need for it. Remember this is for personal lines insurance (home,auto)

Thanks

If you are proposing an auto/home package, you need to include the umbrella as an option. The premium is cheap. Let them decide. And yes, offer the UM/UIM - that is needed more than not....document, document, document....you did your job.

If you are selling people that carry limits needed for the umbrella, then A: you are selling to the best insureds for retention/profit B: they need an umbrella

Good Selling!

 

[insurancechandleraz]

assuming you are "pitching" to the right audience, I would (and do) use stories. Stories let the prospect visualize themselves in the story. I have a handful of stories I use so I can try to match it to my client/prospect lifestyle as much as possible.

You can also setup a google alert, to always get new stories.

 

[TwiLight]

My Pitch....."I am in favor of them".

 

[Herkster]

do you guys think personal umbrella is really undersold? 95% of my clients do not have umbrella and dont even know what it is.

Very hard to explain it to them, when they got state min. car insurance and 2-3 rental buildings in nyc. each building usually is worth 800k.

They wont raise their coverage for the car to satisfy getting an umbrella. They are open to buying the umbrella but wont raise their coverage.

State mins, really? I don't think we have a single auto policy in our office with less than 100/300. Heck, we won't even write state minimums, it leaves to much risk on the insured and back on the agent for a possible E&O claim.