Coverage Advice, Please

[oceanofsand]

I've always carried 500-500 bodily injury & 250-500 uninsured motorists.
I'm looking at reducing my coverage to either 100-300 or 50-100 to save $.
What factors should I look at to make a smart/prudent decision?

 

[Guest]

NEVER lower your coverages, call an Independant agent and get some quotes

 

[Sales71]

The diff is too little to lower coverage. U might want to look at increase deductibles or drop comp and collision if it an older car.

 

[Guest]

get quotes from other companies

 

[FullAuto]

For your liability, have you compared your current 500/500 to a 250/500 (or the 100/300)? Is it really a big savings? If you're paying 500/500 on multiple cars, add up the difference if you lower them all to the minimum required to have an umbrella policy (which is 250/500/100 at my company). For example, my umbrella costs ~$180/year. If I raised my liability coverage on each car the next step, it would cost more than that. But the umbrella will stack on any policy. So I'm actually getting more coverage for less money.

For the UM, you may quote against a 300/300. It will lower the insurance company's total liabilty and should be a decent savings. The gamble there is if two people in your car are really screwed up. In the worst case scenerios, you are usually just cutting yourself out of a pain & suffering settlement. Your health insurance should cover your medical bills if you are hit by an uninsured person. You should just pay the deductible and whatever percentage you have to pay with your health insurance (like 80/20 or 90/10). Even if you are responsible for 20%, that 300k will cover your portion of the first $1.5M. Chances are if your bills are that high, you don't need UM, you need life insurance.

IMO, anyone with liability coverage lower than 100/300/100 is begging to be sued.

 

[Sales71]

Tell that to Black sky....

 

[oceanofsand]

Full Auto,

The difference between 500/500 and 250/500 is $100 yr. The difference between 500/500 and 100/300 is $480-500 yr.
Now, I've been paying that difference with the same insurance co. for 21 years, so it does add up over time.
I do have good health ins., but I certainly don't want to leave any victim of an accident I may cause without the money to pay for medical bills, etc.
Of course, I know that there are terrible accidents which create huge expenses, but they are the exception.
I also know that lawyers don't sue someone unless that someone has enough assets to make it worth their time.
I asked my question to learn if there is a more-or-less objective standard to balance the need to protect one's assets from a lawsuit against one's assumed moral obligation to protect others from any accident one may cause. That's what I was inquiring about.
For example, in FE sales it's pretty simple. If someone wants a policy only to pay for a local cremation and a few left over bills, I'm going to recommend 2-5K. If someone wants a traditional funeral and ground burial in their hometown which is 2000 miles away, we're probably talking 12-20K.
Maybe I should have titled the thread, "Convince me that I need more than 100/300 Bod inj, 100 prop dam, & 100/300 uninsured motor."

 

[FullAuto]

Are those prices differences for one or each car or your entire fleet? I don't pay $500/year for liability on any of my cars let alone that being just the difference in coverage amounts. I carry 250/500/100 on all but 1 of my cars. Like RBA said, shop around. I would not pay an additional $250 every 6 months just for the additional liability coverage for each car. For 5 or 6 cars, maybe.

I've talked to a few BI adjusters lately in my company because I have an open claim out from a car wreck. They handle claims all day for a living and they all say that 100k+ claims are rare when you look at them as a percentage of BI claims, but they do see them often just based of the volume of claims they handle. As rare as they are, my claim will likely be greater than 100k. The liable person did have insurance but not enough so I have an open UM claim too. And just from the damaged cars I see when I'm working, I know people are getting hurt much worse than I am. I've worked a couple of fatality accidents too.

I don't have any data because it's not my area, but I'd guess 100/300 would cover well over 99% of injury accidents. And I still carry more. I've heard people say you should carry coverage at least equal to your net worth. Maybe the agents can comment on that. I carry way more than my net worth, but IMO it's not that expensive.

 

[Sales71]

I carry 500/500 500 with um at 500/500 with a2 mil pup.

 

[FullAuto]

I carry 500/500 500 with um at 500/500 with a2 mil pup.

You CA guys are high rollers.