Review Your Underinsured Motorist Coverage

We are finding at an increasing rate that our clients who think they have “full insurance coverage” actually have far too low uninsured motorist coverage to protect themselves and their family when they are hurt. 

We have a client who travels around New England as a contractor. He is the major breadwinner in the family, and any injury that he could sustain would put the family in financial jeopardy. Since he worked for himself, he would not even be entitled to workers’ compensation benefits if he was hurt on the job. Since he drives quite a bit, there is a reasonable risk that if he sustained an injury, it would be from a car crash.

 He has a new truck and his wife has a car. When his wife went to the insurance agent, she asked for “full insurance coverage” because she knew that her husband had a new truck, they had a home, and she wanted to be protected. Unfortunately, while she was sold insurance coverage for every category, namely, property damage, liability, collision, rental and towing, she actually was sold the absolute minimum available for bodily injury liability and uninsured motorist coverage. While she should have purchased at least $250,000 in uninsured motorist coverage, she was actually sold only $25,000 in uninsured motorist coverage. 

When her husband sustained serious injuries in a car crash, we found that the person responsible for the car crash had only $25,000 in liability coverage. Accordingly, we looked towards the family’s auto policy to check their underinsured motorist limits. Since they had the minimum of only $25,000 in their “full coverage” policy, there was no additional insurance coverage to cover the serious injuries that our client sustained.

 It is our experience that for a very small fractional increase in the amount of the insurance premium, you can significantly increase your uninsured and underinsured motorist coverage to at least $100,000 and preferably, $250,000. Additionally, we find that for a small additional price of about $200 to $250, your family could have an umbrella coverage of at least $1,000,000 so that if you or a family member is hurt in any way in a car accident or even as a pedestrian, you would have up to $1,000,000 in underinsured motorist coverage available to pay for your injuries.

 The moral of the story is that you should check your policies carefully. If your bodily injury liability and uninsured motorist coverage is less than $250,000, you should ask your agent to increase those two coverage’s to at least $250,000. You will be quite surprised that the increase in your premium would be very modest.

 These days when injuries and death from a car crash is one of the most frequent causes of injury and death, you should make certain that you have adequate coverage in your own insurance policy to cover you when a careless driver is uninsured and you need protection . . .

-Jim

Articles contained here are not intended to provide legal advice, only providing general information. We encourage individuals to consult with an attorney regarding individual circumstances.