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Updated over 7 years ago on . Most recent reply

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Logan I.
  • Nashville, TN
5
Votes |
12
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Am I playing with fire on my umbrella policy?

Logan I.
  • Nashville, TN
Posted

I am holding my properties in my own name, no LLC etc. For protection, I have a massive landlord and umbrella insurance (1m, 2m respectively). For simplicity, I have a website with "business name" which lists all the properties, and also have a credit card in that name. The "business name" is not registered officially or incorporated in any way. Am I playing with fire in regards to the properties being part of a business and compromising my umbrella insurance coverage?

Your thoughts are much appreciated.

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Jeff Bridges
  • Investor
  • Hyattsville, MD
440
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Jeff Bridges
  • Investor
  • Hyattsville, MD
Replied

Not a lawyer caveat- insurance companies want their clients to be low profile. For example if you drive an expensive exotic car, you're a target for someone looking to make an accident claim or liability claim since they see you might have deep pockets. If a tenant sees your business or googles your address, they see a company with multiple properties and deep pockets for a possible insert "BS" liability claim that occurred on your property. In your case, I don't see the benefit of having a business and all of your personally owned properties listed on a website for tenants/ attorneys to easily find and aggregate the total value of your assets. You just made their job super easy. Granted, attorneys can find all of your assets very easily with their database searches if they are looking to research your assets so I'm not saying you're hidden to begin with. You can however make it harder for tenants to get any ideas about a slip and fall claim leading to a big payout after hiring an attorney. Your fake business just leads to your very real personally owned properties and if someone has malicious intent, they will go after you and your assets personally. You want your tenants to ideally see you drive a vanilla car and think you are a small time landlord with few assets. Try googling your property addresses, your business website will likely pop up. See how easy it is for folks to connect the dots publicly. Consider changing that.

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