WHAT THE INSURANCE AGENT WON'T TELL YOU
By Charles R. "Bud" Stack
"Thank you for dropping into our offices for your insurance needs. What can I do to help you?" said Wil Sockituya, the friendly Allstar Indemnity Company agent. "Well, I need a policy for automobile insurance to cover me and my family. We just bought a new car." said Mabel Trustem. "I have just the thing for you . What you need is $100,000.00 of liability insurance, personal injury protection of $10,000 with a $2,000 deductible, and a full comprehensive policy to cover the possible loss of your new car. That should do it!" said Sockituya. "Okay, that sounds good to me," said Mabel. "Let me just look at the application here and I'll sign it. Wait a minute, what is this about me having to sign away my desire to have uninsured motorist coverage equal to the $100,000.00 liability coverage?" (That's insurance to cover all of your personal injury damages if the other driver who caused
the accident isn't insured.) "Oh that's nothing. We just have to get you to sign that because you can have uninsured motorist coverage if you really want it. But you don't really need it." said Sockituya. "Okay, that sounds right to me, but what is this about a $2,000 deductible on my personal injury protection coverage?" said Mabel. "That's where we're just trying to save you some premium dollars by putting in a deductible. That just means you would pick up $2,000 of the expense in the event of a $10,000 medical charge." said Sockituya. What he omitted to say is that until Mabel reaches in her own pocket for the first $2,000 in medical expenses, the insurance pays nothing. "Okay, I'll sign it. Here's my check." said Mabel. Three weeks later Mabel was in a serious automobile accident in which the negligent driver had no liability insurance. Mabel's right arm was broken in two places, her right ankle was fractured and she sustained a herniated disc in the lower part of the neck. Guess what good her new insurance policy did her! Mabel had to pay the first $2,000 of medical expense herself. Allstar Indemnity almost scott-free only picking up the additional costs over the $2,000. Much worse, Mabel's injuries which were certainly worthy of at least a $100,000 settlement, went completely uncompensated. This is because the uninsured driver who caused the accident had no funds to pay against any judgement and Mabel had no uninsured motorist coverage. She had been talked out of this coverage by the "friendly agent, Sockituya, of Allstar Indemnity Insurance Company. So Mabel got nothing except a $2,000 bill for her medical expenses (Allstar did fix her car at a second rate garage rather than a dealership). Why did this happen to Mabel? Allstar Indemnity Insurance Company, just like most of the other automobile
insurance carriers

in the United States, hates to write uninsured motorist coverage. That's because they know that at least 50% of the drivers on the road today have no insurance and those drivers are usually the ones who are the most careless and who have no business driving.Moreover, the insurance companies can estimate the
degree of risk that they take by writing you a liability
insurance policy - your age, driving habits, residence location, past driving can pretty well figure how much the premium should
be. But not so in the case of uninsured motorist coverage, because the insurance company has no way of estimating what careless and uncaring fool out on the road might just happen to run into you. On the other hand, The state of Florida requires the insurance companies to charge very low premiums for uninsured motorist coverage and that just doesn't sit well at all in view of the
insurance companies' risk as described above.
DON'T LET YOUR INSURANCE AGENT TALK YOU OUT OF THE MAXIMUM AMOUNT OF UNINSURED MOTORIST COVERAGE YOU CAN HAVE, AND IF YOU DON'T HAVE THE
MAXIMUM AT THIS POINT, RUN, DON'T WALK, TO YOUR
INSURANCE AGENT AND CORRECT THIS MISTAKE.

Now let's talk about the $2,000 deductible on your Personal Injury Protection coverage (PIP): Mabel may have saved herself $75 to $125 by taking a $2,000 deductible against her PIP coverage ‚ but look what happened when she had an accident. She ended up losing $2,000 out of her own pocket and the insurance company ended up paying very little or nothing. The
. . .DON'T LET THEM TALK YOU INTO A DEDUCTIBLE AGAINST YOUR PIP COVERAGE.

We'll be giving you more and more tips as the weeks go on and the Chandra Newsletter invites us to participate in informing its readers.

CHARLES R. "BUD" STACK is a senior partner of High, Stack, Palahach & Cruanes, a 40-year old prominent personal injury and insurance law firm with offices in Miami and Melbourne. He is board certified by both the National Board of Trial Advocacy and the Florida Bar, his law firm is a toprated firm by the nation's most prominent rating service and he has achieved numerous honors in the field of personal injury and trial law. He has attained numerous million dollar plus verdicts and settlements, some of which are record-makers. He is a founding member of the law firm, along with the late Robert King High, Democratic Nominee for Governor of Florida and Edward B. Davis, Chief Judge of the United States
District Court, Southern District of Florida. The local telephone number is 321-725-5525 and their offices are at 525 Strawbridge Avenue, Melbourne, Florida.

Charles R. "Bud" Stack