We are often asked, “What limits of insurance should you carry?” Whether it is your home, auto, or umbrella insurance, the truth is you really should carry as much insurance as you possibly can.
We live in an era of litigation and lawsuits where people are prone to quickly file lawsuits in an effort to get rich quick. If you live in Tampa, FL, you have probably noticed the plethora of billboards for personal injury attorneys which litter our interstates.
On the auto insurance side, insurance companies actually rate an individual driver based on several components.
One is your credit. How good your credit is matters greatly with the likelihood of having a claim. The second, is the amount of coverage that you carry. Statistically speaking, insurance companies find that people that carry higher limits of coverage have a less likely chance that they are going to have an accident.
Now if you want minimum insurance limits, insurance companies look at that as a big negative and they literally surcharge you for those limits. And so you will most likely pay significantly more for your insurance. We find that often within our agency that we might have a client leave us for one of the 800 companies out there. And they will go, they are talking with the 800 guy number on the other line, and the agent says “well you don’t need coverage that high.” Then they will literally lower the limits for the person so maybe they can save 15%. But what they are really doing is a huge disservice. Long term, the cost of their insurance is going to go up.
On the auto side, why you want to carry as much insurance as you can, is because you want to get what’s called the uninsured or underinsured motorist coverage. You can only get as much uninsured or underinsured motorist coverage as you have personal liability or bodily injury. That’s important because uninsured motorist covers you if you’re in an accident, you’re not at fault, but you’re hurt. Uninsured motorist insurance is going to pay for work lost, pay for someone to come into your home, and help take care of you, your spouse, or other people in the vehicle. It has a very wide range of use and is the most important coverage anyone can carry.
Here in Florida and many other parts of the country, there is a ramped amount of drivers who do not have any insurance at all. In fact, a couple of years ago, 38% of all drivers were driving without any insurance. So you want to have that protection as high as possible and in the long run, it’s going to save you a lot of money. So whatever you do, make sure you get those high limits of liability.
So truly get as much insurance as you can and in the long run it’s actually going to pay off, save you money, and you will be properly protected. You purchase insurance to make sure you are taken care of in case of an accident. So go out there, take a look at your policies, call an independent agent, and call Most Insurance.
We can help you, we’ll explain those coverage’s, and we are always happy to help you in any way we can.
