How Much Uninsured Motorist Coverage Should I Purchase?
Many times in my practice I am asked how much insurance I should purchase through my automobile insurance carrier. Unfortunately, in order to receive a registration for your car in Florida you only need to buy $10,000.00 of property damage(insurance to fix the car you hit) and $10,000.00 of personal injury protection (PIP). The PIP insurance is to be paid for 80% of your medical bills and 60% of your lost wages until the $10,000.00 is exhausted.
In order to be able to purchase uninsured motorist coverage, you must purchase bodily injury coverage (insurance to pay someone for their personal injuries). If you purchase $10,000.00 of bodily injury insurance, then the only amount of uninsured motorist coverage that you can purchase is $10,000.00. Therefore, you must purchase the maximum amount of bodily injury that you feel appropriate and then match that number with your uninsured motorist.
Uninsured motorist insurance pays you if the person who hit you does not have any bodily injury or their limits are not adequate. The number of uninsured (people with no bodily injury) driving the roads of Orlando are unbelievable. I believe that probably half the people on the road only have the mandatory of $10,000.00 property damage and $10,000.00 PIP.
Because most injuries are soft tissue and worth less than $10,000.00, I urge my clients to at least purchase $25,000.00 of bodily injury and $25,000.00 of uninsured motorist coverage. If you have assetts to be protected, then the sky is the limit on bodily injury and uninsured motorist.
The last issue in uninsured motorist coverage is what is stacking and non-stacking. This simply means that if you own four cars on your policy and have $10,000.00 of uninsured motorist, the stacking will allow it to be increased times the number of cars you have which is $40,000.00. Accordingly, you must always pick stacking as this will increase the amount of coverage that you have at very little cost.
If you have any questions or comments, please do not hesitate to contact me or my office through e-mail or telephone