Legal Tip Tuesday: Is Your Auto Insurance Protecting Your Assets?

Hi, this is your Legal Tip Tuesday from the Quatrini Law Group. My name is Joyce Novotny-Prettiman. I’m one of the attorneys here who works on our personal injury litigation, and we help people who are seriously injured in auto accidents, motorcycle accidents, bicycle accidents, and other similar cases. I’d like to encourage everyone to take a look at your auto insurance policy and I want you to do that from a preventative

standpoint. I want to start with asking you a question that seems unrelated but how much is your house worth if you own a house? Why am I asking? The reason that we buy auto insurance and it’s the liability portion of our coverage is so that if we are in an auto accident that it is our fault and someone is hurt. Your liability coverage is the coverage that is in place to protect you from having someone come after your personal assets as a result of your negligence. So, your liability insurance should be worth and provide you with coverage that’s at least the value of your home. So, many times these days, we see people with $100,000 of liability insurance or less. If your house is worth less than that, maybe it’s a smart choice. But, the way that the economy has been going and real estate has increased in value, that’s what I would encourage you to do. Take a look at your liability limits. Make sure that if you were in a car accident and someone was seriously injured, that liability coverage is worth more than your house. The other reason that you should make sure that you look at your liability coverage is because your uninsured motorist coverage can be purchased up to the liability limits. Those sometimes are the most important coverages that you can have. So, you want to have liability insurance plus uninsured motorists coverage that is stacked and at least the same limits as your liability coverage. You also want to make sure that you have full tor. We’re here to answer any questions you have about your auto insurance and would be happy to look at your deck page. Would rather give you that information and provide those answers before you ever need your car insurance. Thanks for listening to this Legal Tip Tuesday.