The State of Connecticut, Insurance Department, Bulletin PC-65, dated December 21, 2009 discusses Public Act 09-72 regarding Underinsured Motorist Conversion Coverage
I am reproducing Page 3 of the Bulletin below
INFORMED CONSENT FORM UNINSURED MOTORISTS COVERAGE
Types of Coverage
Uninsured Motorist (UM)/Underinsured Motorist (UIM) Coverage. Our law requires you to buy Uninsured Motorist (UM/UIM) coverage. Generally, this coverage only applies where the person who causes an accident is not an insured under your policy.
Anyone injured in an accident may seek to recover damages from the person causing the loss. These losses include your medical bills, lost wages (past and future), as well as payment for disabilities, pain and suffering and loss of enjoyment of life’s activities.
Normally, these damages would be paid by the other person’s insurance company. UM/UIM coverage protects you, your family and others in your car for injuries caused by someone who did not buy insurance.
You have the right to choose the amount of coverage. It can be as low as $20,000 per person and $40,000 per accident, or as high as twice your policy’s bodily injury liability coverage limit. The amount of liability coverage you buy will govern the maximum amount of UM/UIM coverage you can buy.
This coverage also includes standard Underinsured Motorist (UIM) coverage. It protects you where injuries are caused by someone whose insurance is not enough to pay your damages and is less than your UM/UIM limits. UIM coverage will pay your damages to fill in the difference between those limits. However, the protection available under standard UIM coverage is usually reduced by amounts paid by workers’ compensation, or by or on behalf of the person at-fault.
Underinsured Motorist Conversion Coverage. Under our law, you can convert standard UIM coverage to UNDERINSURED MOTORIST CONVERSION (UIMC) COVERAGE. This coverage is not reduced by payments from any source. If your damages exceed the amount of the at fault person’s insurance, or other payments, your UIMC coverage will be available for damages not paid.
Both standard (UIM) and conversion (UIMC) coverages only become available after the liability insurance of the at-fault person has been fully paid.
Stacking
Connecticut law does not provide for stacking of UM/UIM coverage. Stacking allows insureds to add together UM/UIM coverage under separate policies or, in multi-car policies, the insurance applicable to each car.
With stacking, if you had two insured cars and you purchased $100,000 of UM/UIM coverage you received (and you paid for) $200,000 of protection. Under current law, the amount purchased ($100,000) is not multiplied by the number of cars insured.
Also, your UM/UIM coverage is limited to the highest available limit under any of the policies that apply to the accident. If you are injured in a car you own, you are limited to the amount of coverage for that car
Important things to consider
- Uninsured motorist coverage applies if someone causes and accident and has no insurance to cover your claim.
- Underinsured motorist coverage applies if your insurance coverage is greater than that of the responsible party.
Example – you have bodily injury coverage of $100,000
the other party has bodily injury coverage of $20,000. If you have $40,000 in damages, you can collect $20,000 from the responsible party, and make a claim against your own insurance policy for the additional $20,000.
If you and the responsible party each have $20,000 in coverage, you cannot bring a standard underinsured motorist claim. To be underinsured, your coverage must be greater that the coverage of the responsible party who caused the accident.
3. Conversion Coverage. “This coverage is not reduced by payments from any source.”
You have a personal injury claim with a value of $40,000. The other party has $20,000 in coverage, which the insurance company pays you.
If you have a $20,000 policy, with conversion coverage, you can collect $20,000 from your own insurance company. Without the conversion coverage, you cannot collect from your own insurance company.
4. You and several other parties are injured by a drunk driver. The drunk driver has $100,000 in coverage. You also have $100,000 in underinsured motorist coverage
The drunk driver’s insurance company pays out as follows
$50,000 to injured party #1
$30,000 to injured party #2
$20,000 to you.
With the conversion coverage you can collect up to $100,000 for your injuries from your own insurance company.
Without the conversion coverage, you are not considered underinsured.
Attorney Robert M. Singer
Law Offices of Robert M. Singer, LLC
2572 Whitney Avenue
Hamden, CT 06518
203-248-8278