What is Uninsured Motorist (UM) Coverage

Underinsured or uninsured motorist coverage (also referred to as UM coverage) is probably the single most important item you can have on your automobile policy. This is because UM coverage protects YOU!  Most of the other coverages are required to protect other drivers on the road. Many people believe that if they are involved in an accident, the insurance company covering the person that was responsible for the accident will pay for any property damage and medical expenses. However, this is not always the case, there are too many people are driving around with minimum limits liability insurance, or even worse no insurance at all. We will explain below how UM coverage works and why it is important.

Let’s say you were involved in an accident and incurred $75,000.00 in medical expenses, and let’s further assume the at fault party (i.e., the tortfeasor) only has the state minimum of $25,000.00 in liability coverage. This means that you would be responsible for the additional $50,000.00 in medical expenses. Even worse, imagine the person that hit you had no insurance, you would be responsible for ALL of your medical expenses.

However, if you have UM coverage, your insurance company will “step in” and compensate you for your medical expenses and injuries that exceed the amount of the at fault person’s coverage. Basically, the way it works is that you submit your damages (including medical expenses, lost wages, pain and suffering, etc.) to you insurance company and demand that they compensate you just as you would if there was additional liability insurance. It would be a HUGE mistake to settle a personal injury claim without fully and completely analyzing and understanding the available UM coverage.

All too often we meet with clients that either do not have UM coverage, or do not have enough UM coverage, this can be devasting in the case of a catastrophic accident. In sum, be sure to check your UM limits and purchase as much UM coverage as you can afford.