All right, this is Joe Kennedy with The Kennedy Agency in Gilbert, Arizona. Question came up and somebody broadly asked, “What auto insurance limits should I have?” So, what car insurance limits should I have? I think the better question is what do those limits pay towards and how much do those things cost? Okay, now in Arizona, the state minimum limit is 25,000/50,000 for liability coverage. So that means that if somebody has that policy and they cause an accident, their policy will pay out a maximum of $25,000 per person in the other vehicle or $50,000 to all of the passengers, total in the other vehicle, if they are at fault. Now, the next question would be how much do things cost? I had a client years ago who was involved in a motorcycle accident and had to have a back surgery and had to have a helicopter transport him to the hospital.
The back surgery cost $60,000, approximately. At the time, the helicopter was about $29,000 to get airlifted to the hospital. So right there, you’re at $89,000. So if the person that hit my client only had state minimum of 25/50, that person would only have $25,000 of coverage towards my client’s $89,000. We haven’t even… There’s a lot of other expenses involved with that as well. Now there’s a process called subrogation. That client could file a claim on his policy with me and our company would pay the difference, but then you have our company going after the person to get repaid for that 25,000. So if you don’t have good limits, and knock on wood, but you find yourself at fault for an accident, you could have an insurance company coming to get their money back and I wouldn’t want a big insurance company coming after me. So the answer to what limits you have is going to depend on your circumstances and your budget, but liability insurance is something you can never have enough of.
We are in the land of the ambulance chasers. So you want to protect yourself and your finances and your future finances at all times. Any specific questions, give me a call. Joe Kennedy, The Kennedy Agency, Gilbert AZ. Have a great day.