Uninsured or Underinsured Motorist
Uninsured or Underinsured Liability Coverage is a coverage you have on all auto insurance policies both personal and commercial. It is liability protection now to protect you in the event you’re in an accident and you’re injured with somebody that does not have adequate insurance.
Uninsured Motorist
If you are involved in an accident with a driver who does have any insurance and you are injured, what do you do? If you injured enough where you need to have an attorney and file a lawsuit against the other party due to pain and suffering or from lost wages then you will be able to collect under your Uninsured Motorist Liability Coverage.
What happens if the responsible party has low or crappy coverage?
Underinsured Motorist
A second part of this coverage is called underinsured motorist liability coverage. This solves the problem if someone is driving around with state minimum coverage or low liability protection and they do not have any assets that you can go after.
These payouts will be subject to a judge’s decision.
Coverage limits
This coverage usually matches your own bodily injury liability protection coverage and it can’t be greater.
The limits we recommend at Crowley Insurance start at $250,000 per person and $500,000 per accident.
This coverage is also available to be endorsed over some Personal Umbrella Policies to extend that coverage over the top of this one.
Number of Uninsured Drivers
Some studies show that 40% of the driver’s on the road either have no insurance or are driving around with the state minimum coverage. Both leaving you at risk in the event they cause an accident and injure you or one of your passengers. This is why it is so important that you have high enough liability protection to protect yourself in the event someone else causes an accident.
What’s Next?
Stop what you are doing and pull out your auto insurance policy. Verify what your uninsured motorist liability limits are. If they are not equal to your liability coverage, raise it. If they are and you have low liability limits then contact your insurance agent to get options at raising that. Insurance carriers have started penalizing consumers if they carry low limits and putting them in a higher rated tier.
If you don’t have a relationship with an agent or want a review of your insurance?
Click below to learn more about how to proceed.
