An estimated 1 in 4 Florida drivers wouldn’t have auto insurance coverage. That’s too many!
However with Uninsured Motorist protection, you don’t must pay the worth 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 accordance 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 it’s essential to 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 adequate and how one can shield your self with Uninsured Motorist Protection.
Why FL’s State Minimums Aren’t Good Sufficient
Right here within the State of Florida, you will need to present proof of insurance coverage protection earlier than you even register your automobile. You will need to carry a MINIMUM of:
- $10,000 of Private Damage Safety (PIP) and
- $10,000 of Property Harm Legal responsibility (PDL).
That’s it.
$10,000 could sound like some huge cash, however 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 harm it’s possible you’ll trigger to different folks’s property. That $10,000 restrict may be sufficient if you happen to hit a bicycle, however what if you happen to whole a brand-new Audi?
Yup. You’re on the hook for the remainder. They’ll even garnish your wages in the event that they must.
And relating to Private Damage Safety, the situation will get even worse. If the accident is unhealthy sufficient to whole a automobile, it’s unhealthy sufficient to severely injure its passengers as nicely. How far do you suppose that $10,000 will go if it’s essential to be taken to the hospital?
What’s much more horrifying is that Private Damage Safety (PIP) covers the one that buys it. It doesn’t cowl the individual they harm—YOU! Yep. You will be authorized on the street in Florida with ZERO protection for third-parties you would possibly 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 persist with them simply to save lots of a couple of bucks each month.
“However, Jason,” I can hear you saying. “I’m a accountable driver. I do know higher than that.”
That may be true, however what about everybody else on the street? You don’t get to decide on which automobile you hit (or which automobiles hit you); it simply occurs. Thankfully, there’s a solution to shield your self in opposition to 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 occasion who didn’t have insurance coverage (or hit-and-run drivers)
- an at-fault driver who could 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. When you decide out of UM protection, you will need to achieve this in writing (it’s necessary to learn all paperwork relating to insurance coverage). Generally, nevertheless, your insurance coverage agent most likely received’t warning you in opposition to the hazards of driving round with out this protection.
It may be costly. At Harry Levine Insurance coverage, protection comes first, although we at all times respect your price range.
Going with none insurance coverage within the state of Florida is unlawful. However, as everyone knows, the explanation we now have legal guidelines is as a result of folks do issues they shouldn’t.
If a Florida driver is caught driving with out insurance coverage, they’ll most likely 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, however it doesn’t pay your medical bills!
How To Buy Uninsured Motorist Insurance coverage
There are two forms of UM protection in Florida: stacked and unstacked.
Stacked Uninsured Motorist insurance coverage is out there for an extra premium. Stacking insurance coverage lets you mix protection limits, providing 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 automobiles, you could possibly accumulate as much as $200,000 after an accident to which the protection utilized. Even if you happen to solely have personal one automobile this protection cab be invaluable. When you’re in a “substitute non-public passenger automobile” like a rental automobile whereas on trip, that automobile is taken into account your second automobile and stacking would apply if you happen to’ve chosen it.
Let’s say you buy a single coverage to cowl two automobiles—yours and your partner’s. Your UM coverage has a protection restrict of $50,000 per individual and $100,000 per accident. With an unstacked coverage, these numbers could be your protection restrict. However with a stacked coverage, you may stack the protection restrict of 1 automobile on high of the opposite one, providing you with a brand new protection restrict of $100,000 per individual and $300,000 per accident.
In Florida, UM protection is both stacked or unstacked and you will need to specify which you need. It’s additionally necessary to notice that stacked protection typically has larger premiums, so that is one thing it is best to take into account 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 dwelling 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. Once you go to the physician the following day, he discovers that you just 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 personal 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 personal pocket.
Usually, that is the time while 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 completed all they will do for me. It’s your flip to cough up the remainder.”
That’s when the opposite shoe drops. Not solely does the opposite driver not have auto insurance coverage, they’re bankrupt and may’t provide you with a single penny.
That is solely a light instance of the sort 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 automobiles you collide with on the street or how severely you and the passengers in your automobile are injured. However with Uninsured Motorist protection, you’ve gotten another choice if at at-fault third occasion is unable to cowl your accidents.
Be Ready
Within the midst of a laborious insurance coverage market, it’s very doubtless that Florida drivers will proceed to slash their auto insurance coverage insurance policies in an effort to economize. And sadly, you may’t depend on your secure driving abilities to stop you from ever stepping 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 among them.
Accidents and accidents are costly, however the surest solution to put together your self in opposition to monetary disaster after an auto accident is by carrying the suitable insurance coverage insurance policies.
Don’t level fingers in any respect the opposite underinsured motorists if you happen to’re one your self!
Uninsured Motorist protection is important for Florida drivers, however it’s not the one means you may shield your self. Speak to your impartial insurance coverage agent about the price of including an endorsement or elevating your limits to give you the most effective stage of safety on your price range and—extra importantly—your threat profile.
At Harry Levine Insurance coverage, we discover Uninsured Motorist protection to be so necessary that we expressly warning each shopper in opposition to going with out it.
Our philosophy is: don’t store for insurance coverage based mostly on value, go along with the insurance policies that present the most effective protection and received’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 fulfill you!