The late afternoon sun begins to fall in the vast sky above as the heavy summer air commences its steady relent. You slip on your favorite pair of well-worn boat shoes and grab the closest hat. Keys in hand, you're one cove away from a 100 mile per hour abdication. Every stress, worry, and memory of life's monumental moments in recent history will be left behind at the dock.

You're lionhearted and over venturesome as you break through the steady glass of nautical expanse, and the world is your oyster on a lake without a daytime speed limit, and in a boat without brakes. Nothing could stop you now.

One second later, a youthful driver aboard a jet ski jet out of a cove on your starboard side and directly into your path. You immediately let off of the throttle and cut the boat hard to the left; barely avoiding a head-on collision and the imminent peril of a fourteen-year-old boy who had just left every stress, worry, and memory of life's monumental moments in recent history behind at his parents' dock.

Your boat slows and your heart races while the boy's parents scream at him to return to their dock. You're okay and he's okay, but your mind races on. What would have happened if you'd hit him? He would've been at fault, right? It wouldn't have been your fault, right?

Suddenly, you try to recall your liability limits for personal injury exposure on your watercraft policy. You remember that civil cases have a much lower standard of guilt and only require a 51% degree of uncertainty from a jury that a defendant acted negligently, regardless of obsolete criminal charges. You remembered to add the boat to your umbrella policy for the additional $1,000,000 in liability protection, right? Or did you cancel that umbrella policy to save money when its renewal premium increased last year?