Mark A. Deal wrote:
I passed my checkride two months ago and now rent aircraft from my flight
school.

Can anybody give me the FL20 overview of the insurance I should be carrying
and why I'll need it?

Father of three, husband of one, self employed. :~)

Ask at the FBO, they have a vested interest in ensuring you are
properly insured. Some FBOs (usually clubs) have insurance that
names the renters. This insurance provides you with liability and often
includes damage wavers. Right now it seems about 25/75 with 75% of FBOs
not having such coverage. If not, you can purchase such insurance
"renter's" insurance through AOPA.
However, keep well clear of some discount FBOs that do not have any
insurance and rely on renters buying renters insurance. That leaves a
very large hole in coverage and often results in the FBO trying to come
after you but your policy not covering it (i.e. if you were not at
fault). Renter's insurance *only* covers situations where you are at
fault. This is also why you cannot "borrow" your friends plane because
if a wheel falls off his policy will not cover the accident because you
were not named, and yours will not cover because you were not at fault.
Owner's policies are very, very, very strict about being named on the
policy or covered as "open pilot". Without that, they will not pay for
anything under any situation. This differs from car insurance.

However, be careful of the majority of opinons out there that you
should buy a butt load of liability coverage. In truth, life has risks
and there is no way, no how you can ever assign all your risk to an
insurance company. You must made a cost/benefit decision yourself on
how much risk you want to take and how much you want to assign to the
insurance company. Most of us would agree that $2000/yr for $10,000
coverage is not worth it for example.

Finally, remember that in aviation insurance, if your medical is 1 day
out of currency, if you don't have a current BFR ( by one day), etc
there is no coverage. There is no "grace" in aviation insurance.

-Robert