How Much Auto Liability Insurance Coverage Do I Need?

Liability coverage on your car insurance is required in NC, but are the state minimum requirements enough? Morrow Insurance’s Jessica Crain discusses issues to consider in determining the right limits for you.

I’m here to talk to you about how to determine how much liability protection you need on your auto insurance policy. To determine this, we consider many different factors. I’m going to have a conversation with you and go over things like your important assets, whether or not you’re a homeowner and various measures that we consider to protect you and your family.

In North Carolina there is a state minimum requirement for liability insurance in order for you to even be on the road. The North Carolina minimum limit is $30,000 bodily injury per person with a $60,000 maximum payout for bodily injury per claim. If you’re involved in a serious accident, these limits just aren’t enough. We can increase those limits for you and I highly recommend you doing so. If you’re involved in an accident where there is bodily injury for multiple people, then those medical bills add up very quickly.

For example, the average cost for a life flight on a medical helicopter $15,000 to $19,000 per trip, per person. You can see that you are quickly getting to the $30,000 bodily injury limit that North Carolina requires. I would recommend that when determining your assets and going over how to properly protect your family, that we increase those limits to $250,000 bodily injury per person or $500,000 bodily injury per person.

While you see a big jump in the amount of protection, that doesn’t necessarily mean there’s going to be a big jump in the premium that you pay. There is a misconception that increasing limits means I’m going to pay a lot higher insurance premium. That’s actually not true. A little fun fact is that a lot of these carriers actually give you a preferred rate for carrying higher limits. Consider that whenever looking at your limits. I am happy to sit down with you and go over these considerations that determine exactly how to protect you and your family, so that when something happens, the chances of you being faced with a lawsuit or financial disaster for not carrying enough insurance is off the table.