What is a sufficient amount of uninsured motorist coverage? I currently have $50k/$100k for UIM personal injury.
UM/UIM coverage protects YOU from damage caused by people who can't pay. Your liability limit protects other people from damage you cause.
Is your potential damage worth as much to you as other people's damage? Probably, right? So, you probably want to buy a UM/UIM limit equal to your liability limit.
I'm not at all a fan of uninsured motorist insurance and your advice just seems wrong especially if you don't have comprehensive and collision coverage (common for people with cheap used cars).
If you get hit by someone without insurance, your disability and health insurance (and maybe life insurance if you're really unlucky) cover you and your family. If you don't have comprehensive and collision, then Uninsured motorist coverage is only going to also cover your health insurance deductibles. If you didn't have it, everything else would be covered already. That is the only difference between having it and not. If you do have comprehensive and collision, the uninsured motorist coverage would also pay for your car.
So the absolute maximum I would carry with uninsured motorist coverage (assuming I didn't have comprehensive and collision) would be the health insurance deductibles for every passenger in your car. 5 people times $6k = $30k.
UM/UIM is absolutely critical insurance, IMHO. nawhite's interpretation of its use is not accurate. Here's why.
UM /UIM covers you in the event that another driver without sufficient coverage causes you a loss in an accident. It covers you to the extent of your UM/UIM limits, even if that other driver has pathetic limits (in my state, minimum is 15/30, which is pathetic). It essentially stands in place of the other driver's liability coverage.
Relying on your comp or collision and health insurance is not a suitable replacement for UM/UIM. Comp and collision cover damage to property (your car), not bodily injury. Health insurance covers your medical bills - or at least some of them, not your deductible or copay. You still have your wage loss, disability, pain and suffering components to address. Maybe you have some other insurance that covers some of these things. Refusing to get UM/UIM is a penny wise, pound foolish approach.
I have 250/500 liability and the same for UM/UIM, with a 1MM umbrella. The umbrella does not provide UM/UIM coverage - I am not aware of any that do.
Thank you Clean Shaven that's essentially what I was trying to say but it was late last night when I was writing it.
Umbrellas can provide UM/UIM coverage, I have one here in Virginia. It's because I had $500k/$1mm liability/um/uim with my old carrier and my new carrier would only write me a $500k single limit auto policy for whatever reason. I wouldn't switch to them unless they could also write me an umbrella with UIM because my husband and I are often in the car together and a $500k single limit UIM doesn't provide enough for us in my opinion.
I hope we never need these policies but I'm never going to regret having them, even if they do cost me more at the end of the day.
It's also often not as expensive as one thinks to increase your coverage. Insurance premiums are based on the risk that you'll actually have to use the policy. It's a lot less likely that you'll need that $100k coverage, so they don't charge that much more to change it from $50k to $100k.
I'm weirdly passionate about people having enough auto insurance to protect themselves and I see every day people who believe they have "full coverage" and then find out there just isn't enough money to compensate for what happened.
I think you are all putting words in my mouth. I'm using the example of if you don't have any comprehensive or collision insurance but you do have disability, health and life insurance.
While driving, I am rear-ended by someone without insurance and get a concussion and break my wrist. My car is totaled.
If I don't have UIM coverage, my health insurance covers my medical bills (minus deductible) and my disability covers any expenses related to loss of work. Since I didn't have C&C coverage, I get nothing for the car. My total expenses are 1) the cost of buying another car, 2) my health insurance deductibles. Probably $10k total.
If I do have UIM coverage, all of my medical bills, up to my UIM limit, are covered by UIM and past that limit I pay my health insurance deductible and then health insurance covers the rest. My car still isn't covered since I didn't have C&C coverage even if I did have UIM coverage. My total expenses are 1) the cost of buying another car. If my medical expenses exceed my UIM coverage I'll need to pay my health insurance deductible anyway. So $4k if the medical expenses are low and $10k if they are high.
So having UIM coverage only saves me $6000 out of pocket and only if my medical expenses are less than my UIM limits. That's it!
Health insurance doesn't magically stop working just because you were injured in a car. And as long as ACA is still in place, there are no lifetime limits. It's like having an unlimited coverage amount. Given how much I pay for health insurance, I don't see the reason to pay for something else that covers the same thing.