A Personal Umbrella Policy (PUP) is a necessary addition to insurance protection for most insureds. Are you aware of the importance

of this valuable coverage? One of the best ways to understand the need for a personal umbrella is to review actual claims examples. It

is very clear that an incident arising from just normal daily activities can expose all of us to the potential for a large claims suit.

Listed below are actual RLI PUP claims. These claims show the very real consequences of situations that quickly exhaust underlying

liability limits and threaten the net worth of the people involved.

The Insured hosted a party at his home. Among the guests was the Claimant, a family friend who was also the Insured’s

financial advisor. The Claimant brought his wife, infant, and 2 year old child to the party.  The Insured gave the Claimant a jug of spring

water for him to use to mix formula for the infant. The 2 year old child also had a drink.

Shortly thereafter, the children became ill.  The family left the party, and then took the children to the hospital. The hospital

requested the water jug which was found to contain arsenic. An old label was found wrapped around the handle with the word

“weed killer” printed on it. The Insured had apparently mixed a solution of weed killer in a jug similar to the ones used for spring water

and mistakenly given it to the Claimant. The infant died and the 2 year child survived after being in critical condition. The Personal

Umbrella policy limits were paid out.