Moon Insurance Managers, Inc. · TDI license #5595
Personal Umbrella Insurance in Houston, TX
Your auto policy stops paying at a number. So does your homeowners policy. A personal umbrella is one policy that sits above both — when a liability claim goes through the limit underneath it, the umbrella keeps paying instead of your savings, your home equity, or your future wages.
We are an independent agency on the southeast side of Houston, and we can place an umbrella even when your own carrier will not.
- 41years in Houston
- 20+markets compared
- Same dayDPS filing
- #5595TDI license
Three things, plainly
What a personal umbrella actually does
Three jobs. The first is the one everybody has heard of; the other two are the ones that decide how a claim actually goes.
- Pays above your limits The layer on top
- When you are liable for more than your auto or homeowners policy’s liability limit, the umbrella pays the part above it, up to its own limit. Umbrellas are commonly sold in one-million-dollar steps — that is how the market denominates them, not a recommendation about yours.
- Pays to defend you Before anyone wins
- A lawsuit costs money long before a court decides whether you owed anything. An umbrella covers defense costs on the claims it responds to, and that is often the part doing the real work.
- Follows the household People, not an address
- It generally covers you, your spouse and household family members for covered liability — at home, on the road, and usually anywhere in the world. It is written around a household rather than one car or one building.
One limit to be clear about before anything else: an umbrella is liability only. It pays other people. It does nothing for your own injuries or your own property, and those stay exactly where they are — on your auto policy and your homeowners policy, or, if you rent, on your renters policy, which can sit under an umbrella just as a homeowners policy does.
It is also a household policy: liability arising out of a business needs its own tower over its own commercial policies, which is what commercial umbrella insurance is for.
The condition
The requirement nobody mentions: underlying limits
An umbrella is not sold on its own terms. The carrier writing it decides what liability limits the policies underneath have to carry, and keeping those limits in force is a condition of the umbrella rather than advice given at the time of sale. Let one slip at a renewal and the umbrella above it is assuming something that is no longer true.
The market we place through usually requires $250,000/$500,000 on auto and $300,000 on home underneath, and checking your declarations pages against that is the first thing we do.
In practice, that means buying an umbrella often starts with raising the liability limits on policies you already own. It is not a trick to sell you something bigger; it is how the layers stack, and it is why an umbrella conversation is really a conversation about all three policies at once. We do both parts in the same review.
How the layers stack
What each layer is actually for
Set side by side, the division of labor is simple: the policies underneath answer first and stop at their own number, and the umbrella starts where they stop.
| Criterion | Auto and home | The umbrella |
|---|---|---|
| Where it sits in a claim | First. A liability claim is paid here until this policy’s limit is gone | Second. It begins where the policy underneath stops |
| What it answers for | Liability arising out of the thing it insures — the vehicle, or the home | Liability from either, under one limit, and some claims the policies below exclude |
| Who it follows | The described vehicle, or the described property | You, your spouse and household family members, usually worldwide |
| Defense costs | The carrier defends its own policy | Covered on the claims it responds to |
| What it asks of the other layer | Nothing — it stands on its own | Minimum liability limits underneath, kept in force for as long as it is |
| When its limit is used up | The claim does not stop. Whatever is left is yours | This is the last layer — which is what its size is really deciding |
A question we get every month
“They said I have to move my auto policy first.” Can they do that?
Yes — and the reason points at the way out. Since September 2025, a Texas insurer cannot require you to buy home and auto from the same company as a condition of writing either one (SB 213). The law’s own text carves personal umbrella policies out of that protection, so an insurer may still require its own underlying policies before it will write your umbrella — and most standard carriers do exactly that.
That carve-out is not a loophole. Requiring the layer you are agreeing to sit above is ordinary umbrella underwriting, and the exemption keeps the statute from banning it by accident. The obligation the statute does create sits on insurers rather than on any agent, and the attorney general is who enforces it. The general rule, and what it means for the home and auto policies themselves, is on our auto insurance page.
What it means here is narrower. If you like the policies you have, or your auto policy sits in the non-standard market and cannot simply be moved, the bundled path to an umbrella is closed. That is what the next section is for.
Source: SB 213, enrolled text. Verified .
The other route
The stand-alone umbrella
A stand-alone umbrella is written by a market that specializes in sitting above policies at other companies. Your auto stays where it is. Your homeowners stays where it is. The umbrella goes on top of both.
That matters most for the households this agency knows best. If your driving record put your auto policy in the non-standard market, most standard companies will not stack an umbrella on it, and what you get back is a no rather than an explanation. A stand-alone market looks at the household as it actually is.
We hold an appointment with a stand-alone personal umbrella market, and it has its own entry in our carrier directory. That layer can sit over underlying policies that are not all in one place. The underlying limits still have to be met — that part does not soften — which is where your declarations pages come in.
Umbrella questions we get asked
What does umbrella insurance cover?
Liability above the limits of the policies underneath it — bodily injury and property damage you are legally responsible for, plus the cost of defending the claim. It is not health, auto or property insurance for your own losses.
How much umbrella coverage do I need?
Enough that a bad day’s judgment does not reach what you have built: home equity, savings, and a margin for future income. That is a conversation about your situation rather than a chart, and it goes faster with your declarations pages to hand.
Do I need certain auto or home limits before I can buy an umbrella?
Yes. The umbrella carrier sets minimum liability limits for the policies underneath and requires you to keep them for as long as the umbrella is in force — so raising those limits is often step one. What they are is the placing market’s call rather than a universal figure.
Can I get an umbrella if my auto insurance is non-standard?
Usually, yes — through a stand-alone umbrella market that writes over policies held at other companies. Your auto stays where it is.
Does a personal umbrella cover my business?
No. Liability arising out of a business sits in its own tower, above commercial policies — our commercial umbrella insurance page is the place to start.
No obligation
Bring your declarations pages
Bring us the declarations page from your auto policy and the one from your homeowners or renters policy. That is enough for us to tell you what an umbrella would need underneath it and what would have to change first. The phone is fastest: (281) 484-8320, or use the form below takes six fields.
Monday to Thursday, 9:00 to 5:00; Friday, 9:00 to 4:00. 360 FM 1959, Houston, TX 77034.
Related
- Auto insurance One of the limits an umbrella sits above
- Homeowners The other one, and the liability that runs off the property
- Renters Tenant liability can sit under an umbrella too
- Commercial umbrella The business tower — a different policy entirely
- Our Houston office FM 1959, on the southeast side