Insurance Question

BoatUS policy

I have a policy with BoatUS. They will increase the med pay for a very small increase in annual premium. I have a 1986 35 ft trawler that has a fair market value of about $30,000.00. I am insured with BoatUS and have med pay, significant liability, environmental spill liability, and some salvage coverage (if it sinks in the waterway, they pay to remove it, if is sinks at my home dock, probably not). I also have about twenty years with BoatUs with no claims. My policy (with no comprehensive coverage, if I sink it, I have lost it) has an annual premium of $84.00. Not a typo. The point is, they will design a policy that fits your needs.

sascudder said:

I have a policy with BoatUS. They will increase the med pay for a very small increase in annual premium. I have a 1986 35 ft trawler that has a fair market value of about $30,000.00. I am insured with BoatUS and have med pay, significant liability, environmental spill liability, and some salvage coverage (if it sinks in the waterway, they pay to remove it, if is sinks at my home dock, probably not). I also have about twenty years with BoatUs with no claims. My policy (with no comprehensive coverage, if I sink it, I have lost it) has an annual premium of $84.00. Not a typo. The point is, they will design a policy that fits your needs.

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I would love to see your policy, as I have a sneaky feeling that there is a hidden "gotcha" in the wording you may not be aware of. PM me when you have a moment....or touch base here.

Pete

sascudder said:

My policy (with no comprehensive coverage, if I sink it, I have lost it) has an annual premium of $84.00. Not a typo. The point is, they will design a policy that fits your needs.

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I have a similar size and aged boat and I have a similar policy. Cost is $1200 a year. I do carry comprohensive. Sure would like to know what you have on the company that they will give you that rate.

Boat US Insurance

I have Boat US for over 15 years I have never had a claim , Boat us just changed to Geico my insurance went from $910.00 a year to over $1500.00 a year, I called them on why in had a over a $500.00 increase in one year. I had to increase my deductible from 0 now to 1800.00 just to get my bill to 1295.00 a year. I am not to happy with them anymore. Shop !

O C Diver said:

Most people with little assets don't get sued. If you have assets and your boat is involved, there's a good chance your going to get sued. All it takes is a lawyer and a sympathetic jury to rule against a perceived "wealthy white guy ". The issue isn't whether you're ultimately successful, the issue is paying for your legal defense and possibly the claim.

Had a friend recently go through this with his son and a car accident. Son hit a pedestrian and was found 100% at fault. Insurance company saw it as a no win situation and agreed to pay 100% of the policy to the victim, which didn't cover all of the medical, lost wages, and not to mention "pain and suffering ". Cost my friend 5 figures in legal fees to avoid a liability lawsuit against him and his wife. He's now a believer of umbrella liability policies.

Ted

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You make a good point. Looks like a good plan would to be broke.... or certainly appear that way.

Had two friends. One had the misfortune of hitting a guy on the hi way who was already dead. He had 3 mil of liability coverage. Even though they could prove the guy was dead the insurance company paid out a ton o money to the dead guys next of kin.

The second guy, worth 10x what the first guy was worth, had a tenant that was killed in his trailer in a fire. He had no insurance. But, the trailer was in another entity and he acted like the care taker with dirty old clothes and no one ever suspected him as the owner. Zero claim.

Why should your friend be responsible for the sons negligence?

The lawyer and a sympathetic jury to rule against a perceived "wealthy white guy " would never work if the defendants attorney was doing his job. And the insurance pays for the attorney, not the defendant.

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I'd like to get a policy tailored to my needs but doesn't exist. I like to buy insurance that's "reasonable" for my risks. I'd like a large deductible.... like $30 to $40K so the premium should be super low but will cover the bulk of a total loss.

Generally I could make an argument for not having insurance unless one's activities contain some unknown risks that can't be controlled. For a first time boater that heads out on a Loop trip has a lot of risk... probably a good candidate for insurance. For one that likes a marina queen and goes out only on Mon morning in calm water, clear days once a month, do they really need insurance?

I insure everything. I have had friends that didnt and they paid the price. In my early days I had nothing to protect, then I got older. The large umbrella policy is a great idea that I did not like for many years, but at less than $50 a month it could be the difference between being a pauper or saving your ass..ets.

Seevee said:

Why should your friend be responsible for the sons negligence?

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Same insurance policy.
Car owned by the mother.
In short, you could argue that they enabled their son and he was found guilty of causing the accident.

Ted

Seevee said:

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I'd like to get a policy tailored to my needs but doesn't exist. I like to buy insurance that's "reasonable" for my risks. I'd like a large deductible.... like $30 to $40K so the premium should be super low but will cover the bulk of a total loss.

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I've found that you can generally get that policy, but it doesn't save you like you'd think. Just as you're not worried about the moderately small claims, neither are the insurers. We have large deductibles in all situations where the savings are worth it. However, some policies, the savings is so small, it just doesn't make sense to increase the deductible.

Much of the coast of insurance is salvage cost if the boat sinks. I have a million $ liability and a sister hull that sunk in Olympia cost a couple million to recover. Some states, especially states like California, have regulations on salvage and oil recovery that makes removing even a small boat costly. They want the bottom and surrounding water like pre European settlement, even if it didn't have that quality at the time of sinking.
The states just want to turn salvage over to a big company that has the equipment and doesn't care what it costs. After all, we're all paying for it.

BandB said:

I've found that you can generally get that policy, but it doesn't save you like you'd think. Just as you're not worried about the moderately small claims, neither are the insurers. We have large deductibles in all situations where the savings are worth it. However, some policies, the savings is so small, it just doesn't make sense to increase the deductible.

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Good point BandB,

However, if I pay the first third of the value of a total loss, I'd expect a HUGE premium discount but doesn't work that way. I've never been offered such a policy and even with high (as in 10% of the value) there's so little savings that I just keep the premiums and cover losses myself.

I'd think that the bulk of claims are rather small, but would probably take a ton of time and effort to pay and I'm willing to eliminate them... just doesn't work that way.

I could argue strongly that over a lifetime, most of us are MUCH better off being self insured for everything excepting higher risk liability. Just food for thought. I've kept a lot of insurance companies in business with my premiums but have done quite well by not insuring low risk stuff for physical damage.

Seevee said:

I'd think that the bulk of claims are rather small, but would probably take a ton of time and effort to pay and I'm willing to eliminate them... just doesn't work that way.

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In terms of number of claims, the bulk are small. However, in terms of dollars of payout, all those small claims are overshadowed by a few very large claims.