An estimated 1 in 4 Florida drivers should not have auto insurance coverage. That’s too many!
However with Uninsured Motorist protection, you don’t should pay the value for his or her errors.
A hidden hazard awaits those that come to Florida. And no, it’s not hurricanes.
It’s underinsured drivers.
In line with current estimates, about 1 in 6 Florida drivers (15%, to be exact) don’t have any insurance coverage. If that sounds excessive, that’s as a result of it’s. The Sunshine State has one of many highest numbers of uninsured drivers within the nation.
However an accident with an uninsured driver isn’t the one factor you should fear about. You additionally want to fret in regards to the drivers who don’t carry any extra protection than what’s required by legislation.
On this article, we’ll cowl why Florida’s insurance coverage minimums aren’t ok and how one can defend your self with Uninsured Motorist Protection.
Why FL’s State Minimums Aren’t Good Sufficient
Right here within the State of Florida, you have to present proof of insurance coverage protection earlier than you even register your automobile. You need to carry a MINIMUM of:
- $10,000 of Private Harm Safety (PIP) and
- $10,000 of Property Harm Legal responsibility (PDL).
That’s it.
$10,000 might sound like some huge cash, nevertheless it’s not often sufficient to pay for an auto accident.
Take Property Harm Legal responsibility protection for instance, which is designed to offer protection for the injury you could trigger to different individuals’s property. That $10,000 restrict could be sufficient should you hit a bicycle, however what should you complete a brand-new Audi?
Yup. You’re on the hook for the remaining. They’ll even garnish your wages in the event that they should.
And in the case of Private Harm Safety, the situation will get even worse. If the accident is unhealthy sufficient to complete a automobile, it’s unhealthy sufficient to severely injure its passengers as nicely. How far do you suppose that $10,000 will go if you should be taken to the hospital?
What’s much more scary is that Private Harm Safety (PIP) covers the one who buys it. It doesn’t cowl the particular person they harm—YOU! Yep. You might be authorized on the highway in Florida with ZERO protection for third-parties you may bodily harm in an accident.
Florida’s minimal auto insurance coverage necessities are merely not sufficient safety for you and your loved ones. However so many individuals keep on with them simply to avoid wasting a couple of dollars each month.
“However, Jason,” I can hear you saying. “I’m a accountable driver. I do know higher than that.”
That could be true, however what about everybody else on the highway? You don’t get to decide on which automobile you hit (or which vehicles hit you); it simply occurs. Luckily, there’s a solution to defend your self towards uninsured and underinsured drivers.
Enter: Uninsured Motorist protection.
What’s Uninsured Motorist Protection (UM)?
It may not be required by Florida legislation (but!), however Uninsured Motorist protection is crucial nonetheless.
Uninsured Motorist protection is designed to cowl accidents (each to you and your passengers) attributable to:
- a 3rd social gathering who didn’t have insurance coverage (or hit-and-run drivers)
- an at-fault driver who might have had insurance coverage, however didn’t have sufficient to cowl your accidents—like those that have solely PIP and Property Harm!
Florida drivers aren’t required to buy uninsured motorist protection however all automobile insurance coverage firms are required to supply it. Should you choose out of UM protection, you have to achieve this in writing (it’s essential to learn all paperwork in the case of insurance coverage). Most often, nonetheless, your insurance coverage agent in all probability gained’t warning you towards the risks of driving round with out this protection.
It may be costly. At Harry Levine Insurance coverage, protection comes first, although we all the time respect your finances.
Going with none insurance coverage within the state of Florida is unlawful. However, as everyone knows, the explanation we’ve legal guidelines is as a result of individuals do issues they shouldn’t.
If a Florida driver is caught driving with out insurance coverage, they’ll in all probability get a suspended license. But when their accident broke your leg or gave you whiplash, that’s a case of locking the barn door after the horse has already bolted.
In different phrases: It punishes them, nevertheless it doesn’t pay your medical bills!
How To Buy Uninsured Motorist Insurance coverage
There are two kinds of UM protection in Florida: stacked and unstacked.
Stacked Uninsured Motorist insurance coverage is accessible for an extra premium. Stacking insurance coverage lets you mix protection limits, supplying you with extra safety in case you are hit by an uninsured driver. When you’ve got a $100,000 Uninsured Motorist protection restrict and a pair of vehicles, you may acquire as much as $200,000 after an accident to which the protection utilized. Even should you solely have personal one automobile this protection cab be invaluable. Should you’re in a “alternative non-public passenger automobile” like a rental automobile whereas on trip, that automobile is taken into account your second automobile and stacking would apply should you’ve chosen it.
Let’s say you buy a single coverage to cowl two vehicles—yours and your partner’s. Your UM coverage has a protection restrict of $50,000 per particular person and $100,000 per accident. With an unstacked coverage, these numbers can be your protection restrict. However with a stacked coverage, you possibly can stack the protection restrict of 1 automobile on prime of the opposite one, supplying you with a brand new protection restrict of $100,000 per particular person and $300,000 per accident.
In Florida, UM protection is both stacked or unstacked and you have to specify which you need. It’s additionally essential to notice that stacked protection usually has greater premiums, so that is one thing it’s best to think about fastidiously after discussing it along with your impartial insurance coverage agent.
Automobile Accidents Are Costly!
Right here’s an instance of how Uninsured Motorist Protection works.
Say you’re driving residence from work in the future and also you get hit by one other driver who admitted that he “simply didn’t see you.” You drive your (dented) automobile away from the accident however, that evening, your again begins to harm. If you go to the physician the following day, he discovers that you simply ruptured a disc in your again and can want common take care of the foreseeable future.
The opposite driver was discovered to be at-fault, however Florida is a “No-Fault” state, so that you flip to your individual PIP coverage for protection. Eight months later, you’ve spent a complete of $12,000…and your again nonetheless isn’t utterly healed. What’s worse: you’ve hit your protection restrict, so all different bills will come out of your individual pocket.
Usually, that is the time once you would method the at-fault driver (extra appropriately, their insurance coverage firm) and say, “Hey, this accident was your fault. My insurance coverage firm has executed all they will do for me. It’s your flip to cough up the remaining.”
That’s when the opposite shoe drops. Not solely does the opposite driver not have auto insurance coverage, they’re bankrupt and might’t provide you with a single penny.
That is solely a gentle instance of the type of scenario that occurs on a regular basis all through the nation. A extra excessive case may need you struggling extreme accidents that require hospitalization, rehabilitation, surgical procedure, and long-term care.
Keep in mind, you don’t get to decide on which vehicles you collide with on the highway or how severely you and the passengers in your automobile are injured. However with Uninsured Motorist protection, you could have another choice if at at-fault third social gathering is unable to cowl your accidents.
Be Ready
Within the midst of a tough insurance coverage market, it’s very doubtless that Florida drivers will proceed to slash their auto insurance coverage insurance policies in an effort to save cash. And sadly, you possibly can’t depend on your protected driving abilities to stop you from ever moving into an accident.
Intoxicated, unsafe, unlicensed, inexperienced, and uninsured drivers are on Central Florida roads as we converse. It’s solely a matter of time earlier than you tangle with one in every of them.
Accidents and accidents are costly, however the surest solution to put together your self towards monetary disaster after an auto accident is by carrying the correct insurance coverage insurance policies.
Don’t level fingers in any respect the opposite underinsured motorists should you’re one your self!
Uninsured Motorist protection is important for Florida drivers, nevertheless it’s not the one means you possibly can defend your self. Speak to your impartial insurance coverage agent about the price of including an endorsement or elevating your limits to offer you the very best stage of safety on your finances and—extra importantly—your danger profile.
At Harry Levine Insurance coverage, we discover Uninsured Motorist protection to be so essential that we expressly warning each consumer towards going with out it.
Our philosophy is: don’t store for insurance coverage primarily based on value, go together with the insurance policies that present the very best protection and gained’t allow you to down within the occasion of an auto accident.
Need to get began? Get a quote on our web site. We’re excited to satisfy you!
