Buying automobile insurance is considered by many to be a necessary evil of which they are reminded whenever they have to renew their policy. Most people don’t think too much about all of the letters, numbers, symbols and phrases until they are involved in a collision. What do they all mean?
If you look at your “Dec Sheet” or listing of coverages from your automobile insurer, or the card they send you to put in your car, you’ll see several cryptic descriptions of your insurance coverages.
“A”, “liability”or “BI” stand for the coverage you purchase to protect yourself from claims made by other people you may unfortunately injure in a car crash. Most commonly, these involve three sets of numbers, such as 50/100/50. What this means is you have purchased $50,000 in liability coverage available to any one person who makes a claim against you if you caused a collision that left the other person injured. The second number (100), means that the most your insurance company will pay for multiple people injured in the same collision is $100,000. The last number (50), stands for $50,000 in property damage coverage available under your policy. This can include damage to the other car(s) or personal or private property. It does not include damage to your own car. That’s covered under collision/comprehensive coverage which we’ll discuss later.
“P” or “PIP” means they personal injury protection benefits that you purchased. Symbols such as “P20” are used by insurance companies to identify how much of this type of coverage you purchased. These coverages protect you or your family living with you if you are injured in a collision. These benefits are covered under Minn. Stat. §65B.44: “Basic Economic Loss Benefits.” These include payments for your medical bills, medical mileage, lost wages or income, replacement services or losses, funeral and expense benefits, survivor’s economic loss benefits and survivor’s replacement services loss. These benefits will be covered in more detail in a later article. Suffice it to say that these benefits are paid by your own insurance company for anyone insured under your policy that’s injured in a car crash.
“U”, “W”, “UM”, “UIM”. These stand for “uninsured motorist” and “underinsured motorist” coverages. These protect you or anyone insured under your policy if the other driver, who caused your injuries, was either uninsured (UM) or doesn’t have enough coverage to fully compensate you or those insured under your policy adequately for the harms and losses resulting from the crash (UIM). This is typically often in an amount equal to your liability limits. So in the example above of 50/100/50, you would have $50,000 available in either uninsured or underinsured motorist coverage for any one person injured in the collision and up to $100,000 for all of your insureds injured in a collision.
“Stacking/Non-Stacked Coverages”. This applies to your no-fault or basic economic loss benefits as well as uninsured and underinsured motorist coverage. Stacking means that if you insured more than one car, you can add up the benefits you purchased for each car at a slightly higher premium. Non-stacked means that the limit available is only that issued for the car involved in the crash.
Finally, there are also coverages for towing charges incurred and towing you or any damaged vehicle away from the crash or use of a rental car if your vehicle is damaged and not available for use.
This is a very general and abbreviated summary of these coverages. If you have additional questions, you can contact me at jbuchman@bgs.com or visit our firm’s website at www.bgs.com.
CARS WE INSURE
COVERAGE/LIMIT
BODILY INJURY LIABILITY
$100,000 EACH PERSON
$300,000 EACH ACCIDENT
PROPERTY DAMAGE LIABILITY
$100,000 EACH ACCIDENT
PERSONAL INJURY PROTECTION
MEDICAL EXPENSE DEDUCTIBLE $0
WORK LOSS DEDUCTIBLE $0
REFER TO SECTION 1 LIMIT OF LIABILITY
ADDITIONAL PERSONAL INJURY PROTECTION UNINSURED MOTORISTS
$100,000 EACH PERSON
$300,000 EACH ACCIDENT
CAR DAMAGE
COLLISION (COV. D-1)
DEDUCTIBLES CAR 18-$250 32-$250 34-$250
OTHER THAN COLLISION (COV. D-2)/FULL GLASS
DEDUCTIBLES CAR 18-$100 32-$100 34-$250
Full safety glass coverage is automatically included
At no additional charge with comprehensive coverage.
TOWING AND LABOR COSTS
$75 PER DISABLEMENT
RENTAL EXPENSE
$30 PER DAY/$900 PER OCCURRENCE