Not much is happening on the rates side of personal umbrella insurance. But serious shifts are coming your way in the future as tech-savvy tools continue to nudge newly self-empowered consumers toward the coverage.

To help facilitate that movement, agents need to remember that PUPs can be a highly beneficial sell—not only from a customer service perspective, but for client retention and E&O loss control, too.

“From where I sit, a personal umbrella is one of the most important and reasonably priced coverages you can buy,” says John North, vice president of personal lines at Harleysville. “It’s unfortunately sometimes overlooked because it’s an optional coverage, but everybody who owns a home or drives a vehicle is vulnerable to significant legal action.”

“Most people should buy a personal umbrella,” agrees Mike Stone, president and chief operating officer of RLI Insurance Company. “It’s not very expensive relative to anyone’s net worth if you look at the value they’re getting for the amount they’re paying.”

So how can you change the conversation with insureds? It might seem like a no-brainer: Offer personal umbrella coverage to every client.

“I wouldn’t discriminate on the basis of who’s coming in for a quote just because they look like maybe they have fewer assets,” Stone says. “They still have a job to protect, a reputation to protect and a lot of people have children. My advice would be to quote and try to sell them on the risks that are out there—and how this is a pretty cheap way to protect themselves from those risks.”

But be prepared—the PUP conversation might involve a bit of myth-busting for consumers, many of whom harbor the misconception that the need for personal umbrella insurance does not apply to them. “Generally people believe it’s just for the wealthy, and that’s not true,” North says. “Most people have more exposure than they think.”

Offering a personal umbrella when quoting an auto or homeowners policy, then, is a great way for independent agents to “differentiate their value from a Progressive or a Geico—any of these direct writers that aren’t quoting personal umbrellas as a general rule,” Stone says.

In addition to offering the coverage to every single personal lines client, cross-selling it with a broader personal lines package should be a prime focus when pushing PUPs. “The chance for success is much higher when an umbrella is sold up front as part of the package vs. a subsequent renewal,” North explains. “It also helps as a customer retention tool.”

What if you’re offering like crazy but no clients are taking the bait? “Real-world examples of when umbrella coverage is needed are really critical to outline the importance of the coverage to potential insureds,” North suggests. “You can read the paper every day and see examples of significant lawsuits based on auto accidents or liability claims. We need to connect the dots.”

Jacquelyn Connelly is IA senior editor.