 Here in Oklahoma, the mandatory minimum liability limits for auto insurance are $25,000 bodily injury per person, $50,000 bodily injury per occurrence, and $25,000 property damage per occurrence.
Think about those numbers. Then think about skyrocketing health care costs. If you cause an accident that results in serious injury of another person--an injury requiring extended hospital stay and lengthy physical rehab--and you only carry the state minimum of $25,000 per person, your insurance carrier is going to cut a $25,000 check to the injured party. . .and walk away. Who is responsible for all those costs above $25,000? You are! Think about all your assets; your home, your car, your jewelry and other valuable possessions, that could be taken from you in order to pay for the other person's medical expenses. Not a good situation to be in!
That is why we always recommend carrying the highest liability limits you can afford. For a business, we always recommend carrying at least $1 million per occurrence; depending on the nature of the business, we may also recommend an Umbrella policy to extend over the commercial auto policy, in the event costs exceed $1 million as a result of an accident. For a personal auto policy, we'll recommend a six-figure liability limit, often up to $500,000 per occurrence. If the auto operator also owns his or her own business, we'll even recommend a Personal Umbrella policy to extend over the auto policy; the last thing a business owner wants is to have the costs from a serious auto accident eat into the assets of his or her business!
Unfortunately, we live in a lawsuit-driven culture, a culture with legal and medical expenses going up and up and up. If you own a car, you possess an object that can cause an accident resulting in catastrophic injury and property damage. Protect yourself! Carry the highest liability limits you can afford.
Posted Tuesday, September 10 2013 10:06 AM
Tags : auto insurance, commercial auto policy, personal auto policy, liability limits, umbrella policy, medical expenses
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