He is right about the primary residence and "homestead" thing. It's a reason quite a bit of people relocate there who know they might be sued for everything. OJ moved there because of this protection..... Just to clarify, i believe it's only "qualified" retirement accounts are safe. 401k and structured pension plans. If you have assets in a investment brokerage or account that you mean for retirement, those are fair game. As for assets in joint accounts, that's up to the judge. Then the huge legal fees. I've heard those don't get wiped from bankruptcy proceedings. You might not get wiped out but it'll be a battle that I wouldn't want to go through.

I think insurance should be mandatory for registering your boat. It's not only protecting you the owner, it's protecting the "other" guy if you do something stupid or negligible--i.e. able to be accountable for one's own actions.

Yep,
Boat and homeowners ins. in FLORIDA is a MAJOR Rip-off, like I said earlier, that is why we don't own any cats anymore, and hell our Hustler 388 is $3,200 a year!

I agree that insurance is expensive but so is gas, maintenance, etc etc. Nothing in performance boating is cheap. Our 43 ZR is $7200/ year which sounds steep for a v hull but it's triples and runs 120mph so very few would even insure it. $1M liability/ $1M uninsured/ $1M in fuel spills plus a substantial personal umbrella. Your own boat and injuries aside, I hope all of you who run without insurance have deep pockets. What happens when you have an accident involving an expensive MTI or yacht that happens to be your fault. I'm honestly very surprised at how many people on OSO run without insurance, I never would have guessed as many as it is.

X2. Very surprised. Going without insurance is not an option in my book

Insurance isn't required in Washington State BUT I would never boat without it. I mean its not like boats have seatbelts and airbags! People do get hurt on boats all the time and I just wouldn't want to take the risk of someone being injured and being sued over it....

--On a side note, I only pay $150 a year for full coverage insurance! Lol!

X3. Doesn't seem right that some states don't require insurance on water craft. I don't think a person should have to be told they need insurance though. That is something they should have for the respect of their fellow boaters if not for anything else.

Holy Crap this thread scares me!
I can't believe there are actually that many uninsured performance boaters out there! That really makes me wonder about non-performance boaters. How many of these yahoos are running around with zero insurance? I personally know of a few incidents where non-insured performance boaters had accidents (poker runners but not on a run) and I am pretty sure they will never be able to afford being on the water again. Not to mention our insurance rates are directly related to uninsured operators.

As a side note and question,
Does anyone actually have a personal umbrella for a boat that runs 100+?
I have solid insurance through Stacy at Wakezone but would like an umbrella for another 1 -1.5 Mil. I have talked to many different insurance people and no one will touch it. I can get it to cover everything else but not my boat.

Now I know I bought mine a long time ago :) But I bought my cat, had it built, and insured before it was finished, and i did not have any Cat experience prior :(
But I have had 5 boats insured with the same company prior to this one.
Truly I think his issue is more on the age of the boat?

I have also been under the impression that a personal umbrella will bump up and only cover an existing policy?

You want to get a personal umbrella. For mine, the boat itself wasn't so much a issue so as having the underlying boat insurance with required limits before they would then cover. Min was 500K liability on the boat before umbrella would kick in otherwise no other kickers or exclusions! If no insurance on boat at the limit, umbrella wouldn't cover at all.

Edited note: I just got off the phone with my agent. This thread got me to verify I was correct in my case.