How much insurance coverage you have is a very important consideration

One of the most valuable types of insurance coverage you can purchase is Uninsured or UM and underinsured motorist coverage or UIM. UM/UIM coverage is like buying insurance for everyone else on the roadways. If you are involved in an accident and the other driver does not have any insurance then you can file a claim against your own company under the UM portion of your insurance policy. Your insurance company effectively steps into the shoes of the person that caused your accident and will compensate you for your injuries and damages.

The type of coverage that is more frequently utilized is UIM coverage

In this situation, if another driver causes an accident where you are injured and has insufficient limits of liability to properly compensate you for your injuries and damages then you can file a claim against your own insurance company under the UIM coverage portion of your policy. The minimum limits of liability coverage in Connecticut are 25/50. This means that any person that is injured by an at-fault party can collect up to $25,000 and all of the parties injured in that accident can collect up to $50,000. So what happens if you have 100/300 of UIM coverage and you are injured by a driver that is 25/50 of liability coverage and your case is worth $125,000? The answer is: it depends!

There are two types of UIM coverage

The first type is called standard coverage and the second type is conversion coverage. In the above scenario, if you had standard UIM coverage you could collect $25,000 from the at-fault party, and then your UIM carrier would be entitled to a credit of that $25,000 payment against your $100,000 limit which means the most they would have to pay is $75,000 in addition to the $25,000 which you have already received for a total of $100,000. If you had conversion coverage, your carrier would not be entitled to a credit for any monies paid by the at-fault party's insurance company so you could collect $25,000 from the at-fault party's carrier and then an additional $100,000 from your carrier for a total of $125,000.

You should always acquire as much UM/UIM insurance as you can afford and in all cases, you should get conversion coverage. The minimum limits of liability should be at least 250/500 of UIM conversion coverage. You might be shocked to find out how little this additional coverage could cost you. You should review your motor vehicle insurance policy immediately and then call your agent to make sure that you increase your current limits and elect UIM conversion coverage. I am surprised at how many times I represent somebody who has been involved in a motor vehicle accident and I asked them what are their UM/UIM limits and I am told they have full coverage. I tell them that full coverage means nothing but rather might mean that they have the mandatory minimum limits of 25/50. In a majority of the cases where I am told that they have full coverage, I will find out that they have the minimum limits of liability.

You should also check your liability insurance policy limits for any properties that you own, maintain, or control

We recently acquired additional office space and I got in touch with our insurance agent to add this additional space under our liability policy. I inquired as to how much protection we had and I was told 1 million/2 million which means up to $1 million per person injured up to a total of $2 million for all people injured in any type of premises liability case. I then asked how much it would cost to increase it to 2 million/4 million and amazingly, I was told that it would be a nominal amount of money. I know what you are thinking... a nominal amount of money to me might not be a nominal amount of money to you. How about if I told you that to double our insurance coverage from 1 million to 2 million per person and 2 million to 4 million per incident would cost us an additional $7.00 a year?

I think you might be shocked to learn how little money you have to pay to greatly increase the amount of insurance coverage you have which ultimately will protect you and your family members. This is something that is so important that you should contact your insurance agent and go over all of your coverage right now. Why are you still reading this article? Call your agent immediately!

If you have any questions about your insurance coverage or what you should be doing to properly protect yourself and your family, please do not hesitate to contact us. Our experienced Connecticut personal injury lawyers will be happy to talk with you about your particular situation and what you should be doing to protect your loved ones.