Purchasing car insurance can be a difficult and confusing process for even the most experienced consumer. One of the most difficult aspects of the process is determining the liability limits needed to protect yourself and your assets. Auto insurance agents use car insurance leads so that they are often able to help consumers in calculating individual liability limit needs.
Liability insurance provides drivers with coverage for damages resulting from an accident or incident for which they are at-fault. There are several elements of liability insurance including property damage done to others' property, bodily injury, and your legal bills if you are at-fault in the accident. Although the amounts vary, all states require that drivers maintain some level of liability insurance. However, the state minimum requirement for liability insurance is often not enough to properly protect drivers in the case of an accident for which they are at-fault.
Liability limits are typically made up of parts. This can lead to additional confusion for consumers. For this reason, a qualified insurance agent is often helpful in understanding the specifics of available policy options. Liability limits are often shown as 3 numbers (typically divided by slashes). The 1st number indicates the per person injury limit, the 2nd number indicates the per incident injury limit, and the 3rd number indicates the property damage limit. For example, a $150/$600/$100 liability policy would provide up to $150,000 per person to cover bodily injury with a maximum $600,000 in bodily injury coverage to all persons affected, and up to $100,000 to cover the cost of property damaged caused.
The reason it is so important that drivers make sure that their insurance policy contains an appropriate amount of liability insurance is to protect the driver's other assets. If a driver is involved in an accident for which they are at-fault and do not have the proper liability limits to cover the damages caused, he or she can be sued for the difference. For people with assets, all of a person's assets are at risk if damages exceed their liability limits. With this in mind, many insurance agents advice that driver's calculate the total amount of their assets and ensure that their liability limits equal or exceed that amount. Using this method, a driver can be confident that in the worse case scenario, an at-fault accident, were to occur, their assets would be protected.
A qualified insurance agent, whether he or she approaches you through car insurance leads or you independently contact him or her, can often help drivers work through the various factors that go into determining the liability limits needed.