Under the personal umbrella policy, the personal injury liability coverage is usually broadly defined to include coverage for bodily injury, sickness, disease, disability, shock, mental anguish, and mental injury. Coverage is also included for false arrest and imprisonment, wrongful entry or eviction, malicious prosecution or humiliation, libel, slander, defamation of character or invasion of privacy, and even assault and battery, when not intentionally committed or directed by an insured.

Under the personal umbrella policy, property damage liability is usually defined as injury or destruction of tangible property, which includes the loss of use of the property.

The self insured retention is the amount of the loss the insured must pay before the umbrella policy would be required to respond. The retention would only apply when a loss is excluded from coverage under the primary policy, but not excluded under the umbrella policy.

This is a requirement of the insurer, it requires the insured to have certain minimum amounts of primary liability insurance before the umbrella policy can be written. Usually the required limits are $250,000 per person and $500,000 per occurrence on bodily injury liability and $50,000 for property damage liability under the auto policy. The personal liability insurance limits must be at least $100,000 under the homeowners policy. Insured's that have a watercraft liability exposure are usually required to carry at least $300,000 in liability coverage. However, these required underlying limits can very among insurers.