Hendrickson Insurance
Hendrickson Insurance
A personal umbrella, also called personal excess liability, is the policy that pays after the home, auto or boat liability limit is gone, in increments of $1,000,000 and commonly $5,000,000 to $10,000,000 for Sarasota and Gulf Coast households with real estate, boats, young drivers or a business. Hendrickson Insurance writes it as one piece of a household program: the underlying limits are set to the umbrella’s attachment point first, uninsured motorist is carried through, and the business side is checked so the personal and commercial umbrellas do not leave a gap. One agent, the whole file.
Personal umbrella insurance in Florida is excess liability above your homeowners, auto and watercraft policies: when a judgment or settlement exhausts the underlying limit, the umbrella pays the rest up to its own limit, and it adds coverage the underlying policies leave out, such as libel, slander and false arrest. Carriers set minimum underlying limits before it attaches, commonly $300,000 on the home and 250/500 bodily injury on the autos, and the umbrella follows the household: every car, every property including rentals held in an LLC, the boat, and young drivers must be listed. In Florida the uninsured motorist question matters more than anywhere: the state requires only $10,000 of property damage liability and no bodily injury liability of most drivers, so the driver who hits you often carries nothing, and uninsured motorist coverage, on the autos and carried through the umbrella where the carrier offers it, is what pays. Hendrickson Insurance in Sarasota quotes the umbrella from your declarations pages and fixes the underlying limits first.
Every umbrella carrier publishes the minimum liability limits it requires on the policies underneath it. If a car, a boat or a rental property is carried below that floor, or is not listed at all, the umbrella either does not respond to that claim or responds only above the limit it assumed was there, leaving the household to pay the difference. The table shows a common structure; the umbrella carrier’s own requirement controls.
| Policy | Common required underlying limit | What goes wrong when it is missing |
|---|---|---|
| Homeowners or HO5 (each home) | $300,000 personal liability, often $500,000 on private-client forms | The second home or the rental left at $100,000 opens a gap under the umbrella |
| Auto (each vehicle) | 250/500/100 split limits or $300,000 combined single limit | A car bought mid-term and never added, or a collector car left off the application, is not covered by the umbrella |
| Watercraft | $300,000 to $500,000 liability on the yacht policy | Boats are the most common unlisted exposure on Gulf Coast files |
| Rental or investment property | Landlord policy liability, usually $300,000, and the LLC named | A property held in an LLC is excluded unless the carrier agrees to list it |
| Uninsured motorist | Matching UM on the autos; excess UM on the umbrella where offered | The signed rejection form limits recovery to the at-fault driver’s policy, which in Florida may be nothing |
Where the household also owns a home the standard market has outgrown, the umbrella is written as one piece of a high net worth insurance program in Florida, on the same account as the HO5, the autos and the yacht, so the attachment points are set by one underwriter. That program runs from Longboat Key to the Upper Keys; the Islamorada high net worth page shows the full stack on a Keys home. For a larger boat, see yacht insurance in Florida. If you also own a building or business through an LLC, read personal vs commercial umbrella for Florida plaza owners: the two do not stack, and the gap sits between them.
Florida’s financial responsibility law requires a vehicle owner to carry $10,000 of property damage liability and does not require bodily injury liability at all for an ordinary private passenger car (s. 324.022(1), Florida Statutes). Personal injury protection pays the owner’s own medical bills under the no-fault law and is separate. The practical result on a Sarasota or Tampa road is that a serious injury caused by another driver is often a claim against a policy that does not exist.
That is what uninsured and underinsured motorist coverage is for, and Florida law treats it seriously: an insurer must include it with every bodily injury liability policy unless the named insured rejects it, or selects lower limits, in writing on a form approved by the Office of Insurance Regulation, and a signed form is conclusively presumed to be an informed rejection for everyone insured under the policy (s. 627.727(1)). Many households signed that form years ago to save a few dollars. On a program with a $5,000,000 umbrella, the fix is to carry uninsured motorist limits that match the bodily injury limits on every car, and to buy excess uninsured motorist on the umbrella where the carrier offers it, so the household’s own protection does not depend on a stranger’s insurance.
The other Florida-specific exposures an umbrella underwriter asks about: the pool and the dock, the golf cart and the low-speed vehicle, the boat and who drives it, the teenage and college-age drivers, household staff, the rental condo, board service, and the business interest. Each one is either listed on the umbrella or excluded from it.
A $1,000,000 umbrella bought years ago over a household that now holds two homes, a boat, a teenage driver and a business interest. The umbrella protects the balance sheet; size it to the balance sheet as it is now.
The approved rejection form signed to save premium leaves the household recovering only from the at-fault driver, who in Florida may carry no bodily injury coverage. Carry matching uninsured motorist on every car and excess UM on the umbrella where offered.
The condo on Siesta Key held in an LLC and rented seasonally is excluded from the personal umbrella unless the carrier lists it. Either it is scheduled or the LLC carries its own liability and umbrella.
Boats are the most common unlisted exposure on Gulf Coast files. The yacht policy carries its own liability, the umbrella sits above it only if the boat, its length and its horsepower are on the application.
A personal umbrella and a commercial umbrella bought from two agents, both charging for exposures only one of them covers, and a gap between them where the LLC building sits. One desk sets the line between them.
Auto liability at $500,000 when the umbrella attaches at $250,000 buys coverage twice. Set the underlying limits to the carrier’s requirement and put the premium into the umbrella limit instead.
A standalone umbrella from a third carrier loses the account credit a private-client carrier gives for writing the home, autos and umbrella together, and nobody checks the attachment points at renewal.
The sold boat, the graduated driver, the condo the family sold: each is still rated on the umbrella until someone removes it. The annual review is where that money comes back.
Dennis reads every application himself and responds the same business day in most cases, always within 48 hours. The underlying limits are corrected before the umbrella is quoted, which is the part most quotes skip.
Dennis Hendrickson is the owner of Hendrickson Insurance in Sarasota, Florida, licensed general lines agent, FL License E095547, and the only person who touches your file. Sources used on this page: Florida Statute 324.022 (financial responsibility); Florida Statute 627.727 (uninsured motorist coverage). Last reviewed October 22, 2026.
Personal umbrella sits above your homeowners liability.
02 / Related CoverageAuto liability is one of the underlying policies an umbrella protects.
03 / Related CoveragePersonal umbrella does not include flood; that requires a separate policy.
04 / Related CoverageDifferent product for businesses; sits above commercial GL and auto.
Excess liability above your homeowners, auto and watercraft policies. When a judgment or settlement uses up the underlying limit, the umbrella pays the rest up to its own limit, in $1,000,000 steps, and it covers some claims the underlying policies exclude, such as libel, slander and false arrest. It is also sold as personal excess liability; same policy.
If you own real estate, drive more than one car, have a pool, a dock, a boat, young drivers, household staff or a business interest, you have more to lose than an auto policy pays. Florida does not require other drivers to carry bodily injury liability at all (s. 324.022), so the umbrella, with uninsured motorist carried through, is often the only policy standing between a serious crash and your assets.
It depends on what sits under it: how many homes and cars, who drives them, the boat, rental property, and whether uninsured motorist is carried through. A clean two-car, one-home household prices very differently from a household with a yacht, a teenage driver and two rentals. Hendrickson Insurance quotes it from your declarations pages rather than publishing a number that would be wrong for your file.
Each carrier sets its own floor. A common one is $300,000 of personal liability on each home (often $500,000 on private-client forms), 250/500/100 or a $300,000 combined single limit on each auto, $300,000 to $500,000 on the boat, and a landlord policy on any rental. If a policy sits below the floor the umbrella may not respond to that claim, so the underlying limits are corrected first.
Only if excess uninsured motorist coverage is added, and not every carrier offers it. Florida requires insurers to include uninsured motorist coverage with every bodily injury policy unless you reject it or choose lower limits in writing on an approved form (s. 627.727). Carry matching UM on every car, then add excess UM on the umbrella where available.
Usually not unless the property is listed and the carrier agrees. A rental or a building held in an LLC is a business exposure; it needs its own liability policy and, for larger holdings, a commercial umbrella. Personal and commercial umbrellas do not stack, and the gap between them is where plaza and rental owners get hurt.
No. A personal umbrella sits over the household’s home, auto and boat liability. A commercial umbrella sits over a business’s general liability, commercial auto and employers liability. A Sarasota owner with a strip center in an LLC and a home on Siesta Key needs both, written so each knows where the other stops.
Send the declarations pages for every home, auto, boat and rental, the list of drivers, and anything a plaintiff could reach. Dennis fixes the underlying limits, then quotes the umbrella, usually the same business day. Call or text 941-957-2796 or use the umbrella application.
Call 941-957-2796 or schedule online. We’ll review your underlying coverage first.
Dennis Hendrickson changed a New Jersey state tennis rule at 17 and played four years of Division I tennis at UNC Charlotte. Today he writes both the commercial and the personal insurance for Gulf Coast owners himself, and he works a renewal or a claim the way he played: nothing conceded, no point given away.
When you apply, he answers. Every application goes straight to Dennis. He reads it himself and responds the same business day in most cases, always within 48 hours.
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