All - I have benefited greatly from the wealth of information stored here in the forum and from the expertise of the members in this community. So, I will try to give back with some of my experience, however limited, in the hopes of assisting a future member facing a similar insurance challenge.
To recap, when searching for Cobra insurance, I encountered a couple of hurdles:
- My state, VT, requires that every member of the household be included for liability coverage on every vehicle. No exceptions, which includes children off at college several hundred miles away
.
- My umbrella policy requires that every member of the household has primary liability coverage under each auto policy before the umbrella policy takes effect with any additional liability protection.
#2 - I had anticipated, at least to some degree, so I planned to discuss with my insurance provider to explore options.
#1 - I did not anticipate.
I am not interested in cutting corners when it comes to insurance. Personal choice, so to each their own.
I have had insurance from USAA for the past 30 years. But USAA does not offer auto policies for collectibles nor classics. Instead, USAA referred me to American Collectors for a collector vehicle policy.
So this is where things got interesting:
American Collectors would not quote me a policy for my household. Not in VT anyway, because of the requirement to include the drivers under age 25. Instead, the sales rep suggested that I should consider registering and insuring the car in another state, like a vacation home etc, where I could exclude members of the household. No thanks, I am not interested in playing such games.
I heard the same from Hagerty too. No Cobra coverage for anyone under 25 years old, so therefore no VT policy. Again, some discussion about being able to circumvent VT regulations with certain disclaimers etc, but nothing that would comply with the terms and conditions of my umbrella policy. Again, I wasn't interested.
So, with the benefit of replies in this thread, at least the ones on point with the OP anyway, I did two things:
- I expanded my search beyond an initial set of carriers.
- I also requested that the insurance provider consider certain policy riders: like HPDE and even stipulations like I must be in the car etc, akin to supervising an operator with a learner's permit.
So, for anyone that finds themselves in a similar situation, where you are required to provide liability coverage on your Cobra for a member of your household under age 25, then you might consider starting with any of these three insurance providers:
- AmericanModern
- SafeCo
- StateFarm
All three offered me insurance policies for my entire household that complied with the requirements of both my state and my umbrella policy.
I realize that this post is now rather wordy, but I want to provide a useful resource to someone who might require it in the future. It was a somewhat lengthy process, as it took me a while to work down a list of providers of collector's insurance, before I had three options from which to choose.
Hopefully, now the next owner in a similar situation will benefit from having a list of three providers to call first.
Thanks again to all that assisted me on this one.
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