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Question:
This is common practice in the Real Estate Industry. This covers the Broker if you are doing business in your auto under the Brokers name and you cause damage. I would guess the Broker requires a minimum liability -- up to one million dollars in liability?
At any rate -- the Insurance company will not charge more to add and "Additional Insured", however, the increased limits of liability will incur a greater premium. Liability costs are among the lowest on the auto policy. It is a wise choice to have the higher liability limits.
This also protects you in the event that you cause damage while conducting business on behalf of the broker. If the claimant chose to sue you and the broker, it is possible, depending the state laws, that the broker could then sue you to cover their portion of the damages.
For the relatively low cost of the liability increase, you should do it.
Also, check with your accountant, but It is likely that the additional cost (or total premium) is also tax-deductible as a business expense.
Good Luck! I hope this helps!
Likely, unless they have ownership interest in the car, your personal auto carrier is NOT going to do this.
What they're trying to do, in my opinion is "get out of" having to carry their own non-owned auto liability.
It's NOT done, on personal auto policies. A personal auto policy is NOT geared towards picking up business auto exposure. So I don't think there will be a charge, because I don't think it's going to get done.
The cons - if the broker is sued, and your policy responds, even if you AREN'T sued or found at fault, the claim (meaning, legal expenses!) WILL count against you for rating/tiering purposes. There is no "pro" to this from the individual's point of view. It's HEAVILY biased towards the broker.
The ONLY way I would think about asking my agent for this, is if it's going to go both ways - ie, the Broker & Affiliate name ME as additional insured, on their non-owned auto policy. Which, of course, they won't do, because they don't want to CARRY it, and they don't want THEIR policy to cover YOU, they only want YOUR policy to cover THEM.
From a liabiltiy point of view, the answer is, don't bring clients to houses in YOUR car. Have them meet you there, or follow you in THEIR car.
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