Underinsured Motorist Coverage

Question: What is underinsured motorist coverage?

Texas insurance policies provide for uninsured or underinsured insurance coverage. You have to ask for it and you have to pay an extra premium, but it’s very cost-effective and it’s very important. In Texas, some of the latest statistics tell us that one out of every four drivers on the road doesn’t have insurance. We’re all supposed to. The law says you have to have

insurance, but the fact is there are a lot of irresponsible people out there that don’t.

If you get hit by one of those people, you need uninsured motorist protection. If somebody with a minimum insurance policy slams into you, causes catastrophic injuries, and all they have is $30,000 of insurance coverage, then you’re going to need underinsured coverage. What that does is provides a second layer of coverage. For instance, if you had a $100,000 uninsured/underinsured coverage on your policy, and somebody hits you that only has $30,000 in coverage, right off the bat you’ve got $130,000 of available benefits to take care of the injuries caused in that car crash.