I take a lot of pride in building a personal auto policy for my insureds.  I don’t sell on price, I don’t sell on gimmicks, gifts, or bonuses

I sell on Protection and Proactive Service. That’s all that I, as an insurance salesman, can control.  When the worst happens the best that I can do is to make sure you have insurance coverage in place that will Financially (very important to understand, financially) protect you and your family.

To do this, when I meet with a prospective client, I focus on three features of the Auto policy:

Part I: At-Fault Liability Limit

PartII: No-Fault (Personal Injury Protection in NYS)

Part III: Under-Insured / Un-Insured Motorist Limit.

I hate talking about deductibles.

Why I HATE talking about deductibles?

Under-Insured / Un-Insured Motorist Limit

Because in the event of a serious accident (god forbid any of you ever have one, seriously) your deductible is the LEAST important feature of your Auto policy.

Let’s say its a Sunday afternoon in the summer time and you’re taking the family out to get some ice cream.  Your husband is in the passenger seat both your kids are strapped in the back seats.  The sun is shining, a light breeze is blowing and birds are playfully chirping, everything is rainbows and lollipops…

Until WHAM! You get t-boned in a neighborhood intersection by a 23 kid that just blew the stop sign at 45 mph.  Everyone lives but your husband and daughter on the side the kid hit are pretty messed up.  Your husband can’t go back to work for an indefinite period of time and your daughter needs major medical that reaches beyond your Health coverage.

Your family is now living off of one income, responsible for huge medical bills and trying to maintain some quality of life.  NOT GOING TO HAPPEN.  So you look into suing the kid who caused the accident.  He has the state minimums for insurance coverage in New York State $25,000 at fault liability per person, $50,000 total for the accident. You have $500,000 in bills, expenses, mortgage payments, groceries, day care… $50,000 doesn’t get you anywhere.  Now what?

The kid is 23 and doesn’t have any assets of value so suing him beyond his insurance coverage is useless and he’s on his own insurance policy so you can’t go after the parents.

How are you going to come up with the remaining $450,000 you need to sustain your family?

You put in an Under-Insured Motorist claim on your own policy.  As a homeowner you should have at least $500,000 in under-insured / un-insured motorist coverage.  Your under-insured motorist coverage is going to pay the difference between your need up to the policy limit ($500,00) and the coverage provided by the At-Fault party ($50,000).

That means you get a check (its a little more complicated but essentially) for $450,000.  Your Insurance Policy Just Saved the Day!

The Rub

This is an extremely important coverage that is glossed over far too often by most insurance professionals.  Make sure you are properly protected!

Disclaimer:

This article is for informational purposely only. There is no legal advice being suggested or proffered and the author assumes no responsibility or liability for the actions take or not taken by the readers based upon such information.

Thank you,

Ryan H.

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Read my syndicated post on Health Insurance originally published to Under30CEO.com 4 Pieces of Advice on Health Insurance for Entrepreneurs.