Uninsured Motorist & Underinsured Motorist coverage is an afterthought for a lot of folks, but it’s a vital component to your auto insurance.

You may have them and not even know about it (In Missouri, you have to have Uninsured Motorist coverage of at least $25,000 per person and $50,000 per accident.)

Uninsured and Underinsured Motorist coverages are what protects you and anyone in your car if you’re in an accident that’s not your fault and the other guy either doesn’t have insurance (Uninsured Motorist), or he doesn’t have enough insurance to pay your medical bills and lost wages (Underinsured Motorist).

Here’s real-life example: One of my clients was a passenger on a motorcycle when the driver missed a turn. My client ended up in intensive care for several days.

The motorcycle driver did have insurance, including $25,000 worth of passenger liability protection.

But there’s little to nothing left of that $25,000 after four days in an ICU, so she filed a claim with the Underinsured Motorist coverage she has with me to help with the rest of the bills.

She may also be able to use that money to recover some of the income she’s losing because she can’t go to work.

I’ve talked about the dangers of the auto insurance “race” before — missing out on uninsured and underinsured motorist is another danger in making a snap judgement on car insurance.

I’ve seen people with one limit on their Bodily Injury but the state minimum for Uninsured Motorist and nothing at all for Underinsured Motorist. I’ve never been able to figure out if their current agent was too lazy to explain the coverage or too worried about losing a sale over a couple of extra bucks.

If that’s ever happened to you, may I suggest talking to an agent who will take the time to explain coverages to you?

If you have health insurance, it would cover the medical bills, but it wouldn’t cover the lost wages from not being able to work for a week, or a month, or six months, or however long you’re out of work.

And there aren’t many medical bills if you died in the accident, so your health insurance really wouldn’t be much good at all. (This is another place life insurance is pretty important, by the way.)

Do you remember this case with another car insurance company a few years ago?

You don’t even have to be in a vehicle for Uninsured and Underinsured Motorist coverage to protect you.

If you’re taking your dog for a walk and someone hits you in their car and drives off, your Uninsured Motorist coverage is going to help pay for your medical bills and your lost wages because of that driver.

Motorcyclists often think they don’t need much insurance because they probably won’t do much damage to anyone else if they’re ever in an accident that’s their fault.

That’s probably true (although there are always exceptions) but I’ve lost count of how many motorcycle accidents I’ve seen that seriously injured or killed the motorcyclist that wasn’t the motorcyclists’s fault.

Do you really want to make a bet that the other driver has enough coverage to pay your medical bills? Or would do you rather take your protection in your own hands?

photo credit: Baiazid via photopin cc