We hope your holiday planning has been going well. Every year, we all invest our time, money, and energy into making these holidays the best they can be for our friends, family, and community. But sometimes while we’re making these plans, we miss crucial details. Today, we will talk about how liability needs to factor into your duties as a host, guest, or business and how umbrella insurance helps with the holidays.

What Is Umbrella Insurance?

Umbrella insurance is a liability insurance policy that improves the existing limits of your current policies and provides some additional coverage. It enhances other insurance you might have (like homeowners, renters, auto, and more) with increased coverage and payouts when it comes to liability protection, along with additional kinds of protection (see below). For more information on this policy, see our blog, What Is Umbrella Insurance?

Holiday Parties and Your Liability

The winter holidays are a great time of year for inviting friends and family over for parties, game night, or just a friendly dinner. However, not all homeowners take liability into account when they arrange a big party or other get-together. Getting an umbrella policy augments your existing coverage with homeowners insurance by increasing the payout limits so you’re covered for more expenses.

Further Protecting Your Guests on Holidays

As we outline in our blog, Holiday Parties and Homeowners Insurance, you can do many things around the home to reduce the risk of accidents and danger to guests. Some of these include:

• Make Sure Your Exterior is Visitor-Friendly: Stock up on snow and ice removal gear, deal with leaves or other fallen debris, and keep walkways and paths clear to avoid slips and falls.
• Check Your Home for Slip-and-Fall Hazards: Take a look around your home with the eyes of a guest. Are there any hazards (including children’s toys) you need to mark or remove?
• Keep Parking & Driving Safe: Make sure obstacles (such as mailboxes and unexpected curbs) are well-marked. If it’s been snowing, it’s time to shovel and set down deicers, salt, or sand.
• Safe Eating and Drinking: Ask around about food allergies. Check your policy or talk with an agent about if your homeowners policy covers food poisoning and incidents involving alcohol.

Dealing with Holiday Liability Online or In Store

From running holiday deals for your small business to continuing that Thanksgiving argument online, people rarely think about how a disagreement on what was said or promised can get out of hand, leading to hurt feelings, damaged reputations, and even lawsuits. Bundling umbrella insurance, besides enhancing liability protections of other types of insurance, also extends protections to other areas, namely libel and slander—protecting you online on social media and beyond.

At the Safeside Insurance Agency, we hope you have the happiest of holidays. We’re here to help make them merry and bright, but also to be of assistance when things go wrong. Our goal for the last 30 years has been to help those in Worcester County and the greater Massachusetts area get the right coverage for the right price. Learn more about us and how we can help, contact us online, or call us at (508) 753-8862.