Moving to Michigan Watch This Before Buying Auto Insurance 3 Most Important Coverages

How's it going? Thanks for tuning in. Today, you are probably watching this video because maybe you are moving to Michigan here soon. You just moved to Michigan. You're looking into auto insurance. My name is Brian. I am an independent insurance agent here in Michigan. I work with businesses on their commercial insurance programs, as well as helping families and individuals with their personal insurance, so their home, their auto insurance as well. Today, I really just wanted to go over a few of the basic coverages that might be a little bit different here in Michigan than what you're used to. We do have some of the higher auto insurance rates in the country, unfortunately. If you're watching this video, you might have already started just looking into that, or you might have heard it from a friend, neighbor, realtor, whoever it might be when you're moving here. The first coverage that I want to talk about, this is going to be pretty standard across the board, no matter what state you're in, bodily injury coverage. This is if you get into an accident, a third party, the other driver, somebody else in the accident gets hurt, and they decide to sue you. The standard coverage limits for this are going be $250,000 per person and $500,000 per accident. I really do not recommend adjusting from that limit. Then even here in the state of Michigan, if you are going to select a lower coverage limit option, such as the state minimum or 100-300, you actually have to sign off on a form saying that you are okay choosing that lower coverage limit option. I really, really will never recommend doing that because if you get in an accident, somebody sues you, the last thing you want is to not have enough coverage, and $250,000, $500,000 is a great starting point. The next, this is probably the most unique part about auto insurance here in Michigan, it's going to be the PIP coverage, the personal injury protection coverage. Here in Michigan, your PIP coverage, your PIP coverage on your auto insurance is what pays for medical expenses after injuries, after an auto accident, not your health insurance. It's extremely important that you have this as unlimited. There are different coverage limit options. You might have heard about the no-fault auto insurance reform that happened in 2020, 2021. 2021 is when it went into effect, that gave you options besides unlimited. Before that, every policy, no matter what, automatically had unlimited PIP. An unlimited PIP is what it sounds like. If you are injured in an auto accident, and you have severe injuries, and you need care for the rest of your life, that limit for those medical expenses, for those additional costs, vehicle modifications, if modifications need to be made to your home, nursing services, these are all included, uncapped when you have unlimited. If you select a lower coverage limit option like $500,000 or $250,000, that is what that cap is at. Obviously, with how expensive medical costs can get in today's world, I will never recommend anyone to do anything besides unlimited. That's the basics around PIP coverage. Next, uninsured and underinsured motorist coverage. Very important here in Michigan to have and always have it at the same limit, whatever you have your bodily injury coverage liability at. Again, for the most part, this might be $250,000, $250,000 per person, $500,000 per accident. The reason this coverage is so important is because we do have a fairly high rate of uninsured drivers here in Michigan. It's around 25% depending on the area that you're in. That is not even including the drivers that are underinsured and don't have $250,000, $500,000 for liability or maybe don't have the right PIP coverage, whatever it may be. Very important. This would be for hit and run incidents. Again, if a driver does not have enough insurance, that's where uninsured and underinsured motorist coverage would come into play. Those are the three basic coverages that I want to mention. Now, you might have heard the term no-fault. Michigan is a no-fault state. That's a lot of times where PIP coverage will come into play because your own insurance, your own auto insurance is what pays for those medical expenses after an auto accident, after injuries. Then it also relates to the physical damage coverage for your vehicle. If you get into an accident, your own auto insurance, no matter if you're at fault or not, your own auto insurance is what pays for the repairs, the replacement cost for your vehicle after an accident. This is maybe a little bit different than some other states where you can maybe make a claim on the other driver's insurance, go after their insurance company. But here in Michigan, your auto insurance policy is what pays for the physical damage coverage for your own vehicle, not the other driver's. There is something called Minitort. If the other driver has it on their policy, you can maybe recover up to $3,000 for physical damage. But again, in today's world, $3,000 is not getting you very far. If you are looking for coverage for your own vehicle, make sure that you have comprehensive and collision coverage on your vehicle. Comprehensive, as a reminder, this would be for anything sometimes called other than collision. Think weather, fire, vandalism, theft, a tree falls on it, and then there's collision, which is obviously an accident with another vehicle, something like that. Those are really the basics. If you have a loan or a lease on your car, you're almost always going to be required to carry both comprehensive and collision. But if you don't, there's another option called PLPD, which is really just most commonly referred to maybe as just liability or medical or liability and medical on the policy. There would be no comprehensive and collision coverage. So really, those are the basics. If you are moving to Michigan, you're looking for help with your policy or insurance in general, property insurance as well. If you're buying a home, condo, whatever it may be, maybe a second home, and you're looking for help with your auto insurance or insurance in general, feel free to reach out. All my contact info should be below. I'm pretty easy to get a hold of. And if you have any questions, maybe specifically to Michigan or auto insurance or just insurance in general, feel free to leave them below. I would love to help answer those as well. And again, I'm pretty easy to get a hold of. So I look forward to seeing if we can help. Thanks a lot.