We are looking into liability insurance for our PTO. Does anybody have a policy? What limits/amounts? Premium costs? Where did you find a policy? What should we be looking for?

We are wondering the same thing? Have you gotten any good replies yet regardig the liability insurance issue for your PTO?

We're in the same boat. We're being told that we need to buy liability insurance to protect our exec. members against law suits. We've gotten quotes ranging from $300 - $350 for a $1,000,000 policy. I'm not exactly sure why we need it. The districts insurance agency told us that if someone is hurt on school property the school policy kicks in but that any good lawyer would also go after the executive members of the PTO. Now we're wondering if we should join the PTA so that we can take advantage of the liability insurance they offer for $150 a year. Can anyone shed a little this complex topic?

Our PTO falls under our school umbrella policy also. I am not worried one iota about being sued personally. I wonder how often THAT happens. I think what we have had for 11 years now has worked fine for us. We have never had a problem.--Has anyone ever needed to use the insurance? Could you explain why?

Just in case anyone missed it, there's another post a few items down called "PTO Insurance" that also has several responses on this topic. But I have some new items to add. I don't pretend to be an expert in this area, but here's what I was told.

We are in Texas, and I recently asked a financial planner/friend about this. She said that she encourages all her clients that play leadership roles in a volunteer organization to get a "Liability Umbrella" added to to their personal/household insurance and that this would probably add about $100 a year to the premiums. (We also got this same advice from the mortgage broker when we bought our house last year without any regard to being a volunteer.) Even though most things would be covered under the school's responsibility, everyone seems to sue everyone if something DOES happen.

However, I just got off the phone with my insurance agent, who happens to be with All State. She advised us not to pursue this. She said EVERYONE seems to be recommending the Umbrellas, but it's not needed by many people. First, their company policy (which is pretty standard) is that a client has to have at least $500,000 in assets before they can get an umbrella policy, which covers the client for an additional million dollars. She said the plan would add $155 more per year, plus, for some reason the car liability amounts would need to be raised adding another $65.

With our assets and our current coverage, she recommended against it. Our home, our major asset, is protected against as a homestead, and our current coverage should be adequate.

I'd suggest anyone with questions discuss this with their own insurance representative.

Feature story on this very topic now at:
http://www.ptotoday.com/0801insurance.html

Hope it helps.

Tim