Uninsured/Underinsured Motorist Coverage: How Much Is Enough?

How much Uninsured/Underinsured Motorist coverage should you carry?

The short answer is: All that you can afford.

It’s comparatively inexpensive coverage and affords fantastic benefits. So buck up, buttercup. Protect yo’self before you wreck yo’self!

Now for the long answer, filled with legalese just to show that Brendan is up to the challenge…

Insurers in New Mexico must offer UM/UIM coverage to every person who buys auto insurance in New Mexico. By law, insurers in New Mexico must offer as much UM/UIM coverage as the insured bought in Bodily Injury liability (“BI”) coverage and Property Damage liability (“PD”) coverage.

So…If you carry the mandatory minimum BI coverage of $25,000, that means your insurance will pay up to $25,000 for injuries your negligent driving causes to another person. Your insurer will thus offer you the opportunity to buy $25,000 in UM/UIM coverage.

But let’s say that you instead bought $100,000 in BI coverage. Now the insurance company must offer you the chance to buy $100,000 UM/UIM coverage.

You can buy that offered coverage. Or you can buy a lesser amount of UM/UIM coverage.

Or you can reject the coverage. But you’d be a fool to reject UM/UIM coverage because few people carry enough BI coverage.

And if you file a claim and the insurance company says that you rejected UM/UIM coverage, those jerks better have your signature on a document that expressly rejects UM/UIM coverage. If they don’t, New Mexico law says they are obligated to treat you as if you had paid for the UM/UIM coverage.

This is so exciting!! And we haven’t even hit Brendan’s favorite part about UM/UIM coverage. And that is…

Covered in the next blog post!

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