Your liability limit has a ceiling. A lawsuit doesn't.
A serious at-fault accident, a dog bite, a guest hurt at your place — a judgment can run well past what your home or auto liability pays, and everything above that line is your savings, your home equity, your future wages. A personal umbrella adds a layer of liability over your existing policies — usually a million dollars or more — and it even covers some claims those base policies exclude. National General writes it on Allstate-group A+ paper, and we run it against our Allstate contract and 40-plus markets.
The short answer
A personal umbrella is excess liability coverage — it adds a layer (typically $1 million or more) on top of the liability limits in your auto, home and other personal policies. When a covered claim runs past what those pay, the umbrella covers the excess, and it also reaches some claims base policies exclude — libel, slander and other personal-injury allegations. National General's Custom360 personal umbrella lets you customize the limit and can even be written as standalone coverage. It's Allstate Insurance Group A+ paper, one of the best values in insurance for what it protects, and we run it against our Allstate contract and 40-plus markets.
A judgment doesn't stop at your policy limit.
Your home and auto liability limits are real numbers with real ceilings. A serious lawsuit is not obligated to stay under them.
it's you where home & auto stop
Standard liability limits — often $300,000 or so — can be exhausted fast in a serious injury claim. Everything the court awards above that line comes from your assets and, in many states, your future income.
The claims that do this aren't exotic.
They're ordinary life. An at-fault highway accident that injures several people. A teen driver's mistake. A dog that bites. A guest hurt at your pool or on the trampoline. A delivery person who slips on your walkway after an ice storm. Any one of them can generate a judgment in the hundreds of thousands — or more.
An umbrella sits above your home and auto and catches the part a big claim pushes past their limits. And because it's cheap per dollar of protection — a large limit for a modest premium, with each additional million costing less than the first — it's one of the few places in insurance where a lot more coverage barely moves the price.
What a Custom360 umbrella actually does.
Excess Over Everything
Provides liability coverage above your auto, home, condo or landlord policy limits — a single layer that backstops them all at once.
Adds Real Limit
Customizable limits, commonly starting at $1 million and rising in million-dollar layers — sized to what you'd actually need to protect, not a default.
Covers Some Exclusions
Reaches personal-injury claims your base policies leave out — libel, slander, defamation — not just excess dollars on the same claims.
Covers Resident Relatives
Extends to family members living in your household, and — where available — over rental properties you own, tying your landlord exposure into the same limit.
The situations you don't picture — until they're a lawsuit.
National General's own examples say it best: a delivery person slips on your walkway after a snowstorm, or your son's friend breaks a leg on your trampoline. Neither is the kind of thing you plan for, and both can end in a claim your homeowners liability doesn't fully cover. The umbrella is the layer that's there for exactly the events you'd never have predicted.
You need the right foundation underneath it.
An umbrella is excess coverage, so it only works if there's a solid primary layer beneath it. That's why carriers require you to carry certain minimum liability limits on your underlying home and auto policies before the umbrella will attach. A common baseline is around 250/500/100 on auto and roughly $300,000 of liability on your home, though the exact requirement varies by carrier and state.
We set the foundation before we build the umbrella.
Those underlying limits aren't red tape — they keep the umbrella positioned as true excess coverage, so it isn't paying small claims that the primary policy should. Before an umbrella attaches, we confirm your auto and home liability meet National General's underlying requirement and raise them where they fall short — often for a smaller premium change than people expect. Getting that foundation right is half of what an umbrella is worth.
What an umbrella won't do.
It's powerful, but it's liability coverage — not everything coverage. The lines are worth knowing before you rely on it.
It's liability only — not your own losses, and not your business.
An umbrella covers what you're legally liable to others for. It does not pay for damage to your own home or car, your own injuries, or intentional acts. And most business and professional activities fall outside a personal umbrella — those need a commercial policy. If a personal-injury claim (libel/slander) is what you're counting on, note that National General ties that umbrella coverage to a personal-injury endorsement on your underlying Custom360 home policy. We'll map exactly what's in and what's out for your situation.
More Arkansans than assume they don't need it.
The rule of thumb is simple: you want liability coverage at least equal to what you'd have to lose. Anyone with home equity, savings or future earnings worth protecting is already a candidate. But a few Northwest Arkansas situations push it from "nice idea" to "do this now": a teen or new driver in the household, a pool, trampoline or dog, a rental property or two, a lot of highway miles on the I-49 corridor where accidents run high-severity, or simply a growing net worth that has quietly outpaced a liability limit set years ago.
For a landlord, an umbrella that reaches over the rental properties ties your landlord liability and your personal liability into one high limit — which is exactly the kind of consolidated backstop a growing portfolio wants. We'll look at everything you own and everyone who drives under your roof, and recommend a limit that matches the exposure rather than a round number.
The pieces we'll talk through.
A lot of protection for not much premium.
Umbrella is widely regarded as one of the best values in insurance — a large limit for a modest premium — but the exact number depends on everything sitting underneath it, so this isn't a quote or a guarantee. What moves it:
Strong balance sheet, honest caveats.
On August 28, 2025, AM Best affirmed the members of Allstate Insurance Group — the companies behind National General's US umbrella policies — at a Financial Strength Rating of A+ (Superior), stable outlook.
Where National General is strong on umbrella
- High limits, low cost. Customizable coverage from $1 million up — a lot of protection for a modest premium.
- Broader than excess dollars. Reaches personal-injury claims (libel, slander) your base policies exclude, and extends to resident relatives.
- Standalone available, so it can sit over underlying policies even elsewhere — and over rental properties where the state allows.
- A+ (Superior) Allstate-group paper, placed through an independent agency that runs it against our Allstate contract and 40-plus markets.
What we'll tell you honestly
- The foundation comes first. You must carry the required underlying limits — we raise them where needed before the umbrella attaches.
- It's liability only. Not your own home, car or injuries, not intentional acts, and generally not business or professional activity.
- Personal-injury coverage has a condition. On the umbrella it's tied to a personal-injury endorsement on your underlying home policy.
- Match the limit to the exposure, not a round number — and we don't adjust your claim, but we advocate on it and run every market.
The policies the umbrella sits over.
National General umbrella questions.
What does a personal umbrella policy actually do?
It adds a layer of liability coverage on top of your home and auto policies. When a covered liability claim runs past what those base policies pay, the umbrella picks up the excess — typically another $1 million or more. It also covers some claim types your base policies exclude, like libel, slander and other personal-injury claims.
What it protects is everything a big judgment would otherwise come for: your savings, your home equity and your future wages.
How much does umbrella insurance cost, and how much coverage do I get?
Umbrella is widely considered one of the best values in insurance — a large amount of liability protection for a relatively small premium, usually sold in million-dollar layers, with each additional million costing less than the first. National General's Custom360 personal umbrella lets you customize your limit, commonly from $1 million up.
The exact price depends on your household — how many homes, cars and drivers sit underneath it, and your history. We'll price the limit that actually matches what you'd need to protect.
What underlying limits do I need before I can get an umbrella?
An umbrella sits on top of your existing policies, so the carrier requires you to carry certain minimum liability limits underneath it first — commonly around 250/500/100 on auto and roughly $300,000 of liability on your home, though the exact requirement varies by carrier and state.
That's not red tape: it keeps the umbrella positioned as true excess coverage. We confirm your underlying limits meet National General's requirement and raise them where needed before the umbrella attaches.
What kinds of claims does a personal umbrella cover?
The everyday ones people don't picture until they happen: an at-fault auto accident with serious injuries, a delivery person who slips on your walkway, your child's friend hurt on your trampoline, a dog bite, a guest injured at your pool. It also reaches some claims a standard policy excludes — libel, slander and other personal-injury allegations.
It does not cover your own injuries or property, intentional acts, or most business and professional activities. We'll walk the exclusions with you so there are no surprises.
Do I need National General home and auto to buy their umbrella?
Not necessarily — National General's personal umbrella can be written as standalone coverage, which means it can sit over underlying policies even if your home or auto is with another carrier, subject to the underlying-limit requirements.
That said, keeping everything on the same paper often simplifies claims and can help with pricing. Because we're independent, we'll compare a National General umbrella against our Allstate contract and other markets and tell you which structure fits.
How do I get a National General umbrella quote in Bentonville or Rogers?
Start at our personal lines quote form or call (479) 286-1066. Have your current home and auto declarations handy — the umbrella is priced on everything sitting underneath it, and we need to see your underlying limits anyway.
We'll recommend a limit that matches what you'd actually need to protect, confirm the foundation, and run National General against our Allstate contract and 40-plus markets.
If our carrier and coverage guides are helpful, mark Cribb Insurance as a preferred source so more Northwest Arkansas families find our local, plain-English explanations.
Add the layer that stands between a lawsuit and everything you own.
Send us your current home and auto declarations. We'll confirm the underlying limits an umbrella needs, raise them where they fall short, recommend a limit that matches what you'd actually have to protect — home equity, savings, future income — and tie in rental properties and every driver under your roof. Then we'll run National General against our Allstate contract and 40-plus markets. It's one of the cheapest pieces of protection you'll ever buy for what it does.
Cribb Insurance Group Inc. is an independent insurance agency licensed in Arkansas. We are not National General or Allstate, and this page is authored independently and is not endorsed, sponsored, reviewed, or approved by either. "National General," "Custom360," and "Allstate" are trademarks or service marks of Allstate Insurance Company and its affiliates, used here nominatively to identify products we are appointed to place. National General's Arkansas personal umbrella policies are underwritten by member companies of National General, an Allstate company.
This page describes coverage in general terms for informational purposes only. It is not a policy, not an offer of insurance, and not a guarantee of coverage, availability, eligibility, or price. Limits, underlying-limit requirements, personal-injury coverage conditions, rental-property extension, standalone availability, eligibility, and availability vary by household, by state, by policy, and over time, are set by the carrier, and are subject to underwriting review and approval and to the terms, conditions, limits, and exclusions of the policy actually issued. A personal umbrella covers liability you are legally obligated to pay to others; it does not cover your own property or injuries, intentional acts, or most business or professional activities. Personal-injury coverage on the umbrella may require a corresponding endorsement on the underlying homeowners policy. Underlying-limit figures shown are common-baseline illustrations, not National General's specific requirement. If anything on this page conflicts with the issued policy, the policy controls.
Financial strength ratings are opinions of an insurer's ability to meet its ongoing insurance obligations, are subject to change, are not recommendations to purchase, hold or terminate any policy, and do not address an insurer's claims-handling practices; current ratings are at ambest.com. The A+ (Superior) rating referenced applies to the members of Allstate Insurance Group as affirmed by AM Best on August 28, 2025; National General Insurance Ltd. (Bermuda) is a separately rated entity carrying a different rating. If anything here conflicts with the issued policy, the policy controls.
Last reviewed July 2026.