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What is Uninsured and Underinsured Motorist Coverage?

Uninsured and underinsured motorist coverage protects people who are driving their cars who are injured by someone else who either does not have insurance, which would be uninsured, or someone who does not have enough insurance, which would be underinsured. People should max out their coverage for uninsured and underinsured motorist coverage. What that means is, you should call your insurance company and ask them what the maximum policy you can have for uninsured and underinsured coverage.

The reason this is so important is if you get into an accident with someone who doesn’t have insurance, you go after your own insurance company for your damages and your injuries. And so if you have a low policy, that’s the max that you can get. Additionally, the underinsured coverage is if the at fault driver has a low policy, but your injuries are great and your damages are great.

So for example, if someone hits you and they’re at fault and they’ve only got a $25,000 policy, but your case is worth $100,000, you can only get 25,000 from the at fault driver and then you turn to your own policy for the rest of your damages. If you have a $25,000 policy as well, you cannot recover any more money.

I’ve seen countless people and cases we’ve handled where their injuries are significant, their damages are significant and they just don’t have enough coverage. And what’s also interesting about this is insurance companies don’t have the same interests as you do. So this is not something that they typically tell you.

I remember when I called my insurance company to max out my policies for underinsured coverage and uninsured coverage, the insurance company was asking me about what assets I was trying to protect, so on and so forth. They weren’t necessarily talking me out of it, but they were trying to get more information from me to justify giving me this coverage. And in reality, they should have just given me the quote and given it to me.
And what I told my adjuster, which is what I tell people all the time, it protects you if you’re in a crosswalk and you’re hit by someone who has no insurance, or if you’re in a car accident and your case is worth a half million dollars, but the other party only has $25,000 in coverage. So this is such an important thing.
The premiums people pay to max out these policies are nominal. It doesn’t cost that much more to max out your uninsured and underinsured motorist coverage. Everyone should contact their insurance company, get a quote, max out these policies to protect themselves in case they’re hit by someone who does not have insurance or who does not have enough insurance.

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