<p>So, sometime later this year DD will be taking a car to campus with her. Is it best to put the vehicle into her name? It is a question of liability. Obviously a college student has fewer assets and therefore is less of a target for the ‘deep pocket’ set. The insurance costs will go but the trade off seems worth it.</p>
<p>Thoughts…</p>
<p>When my son got his own car*, it was HIS car. Title, insurance, everything in HIS name, and he has paid for everything himself. He’s been very responsible with it.</p>
<p>(* We got him a <em>very</em> used car as a high school graduation gift, because he needed a car to commute to college the first few years.)</p>
<p>It would be worth calling your insurance agent to discuss. Pretty sure that my kids’ are titled/registered in their name and still on my policy as insured drivers of that specific vehicle. We all have the max. liability, not the smaller amount the state requires.</p>
<p>while ours kids were still undergrads cars were in our name with them listed on the insurance. Much cheaper that way. Of course, we also have a fairly inexpensive umbrella policy to ensure that we are covered. Each family seems to handle this in different ways based on lots of factors…</p>
<p>We have S’s car in my name and it is included in our umbrella policy. I can’t say I researched the options, other than knowing if car was in his name it would cost $1K more per year to insure without the large liability policy.</p>
<p>^ S is listed as primary driver on his car despite being registered in my name.</p>
<p>Some of you are mentioning “umbrella policies”. I confess some ignorance here.
We don’t have one. Are we under-insured? Does everybody do this? How expensive are they?</p>
<p>Curiouser -
Umbrella policies – a/k/a excess insurance policies – are the cheapest insurance you can buy because they only pay out on a claim when underlying insurance is exhausted. I think our $1 million policy costs something like $150/year. Caveat though is that the excess insurer typically requires that your underlying insurance (car and homeowners) have certain minimum levels of coverage which may be higher than you currently have. If you have to bump up your car or homeowners, those underlying policies will end up costing more. Still worth it though. I tell my clients that if, say, you got in a car accident and killed a family of five, they will first go after your car insurance, then your excess, and only after that your house and other assets. (Plug here too for Declarations of Homestead – or whatever they are called in each state – which provides many hundreds of thousands of asset protection for your principal residence. In my state, for example, it only costs $35 to record one, and you get up to $500K in home equity protection. Which means the first $500K of home equity is off the table in the above example.) </p>
<p>Any insurance people out there?</p>
<p>I think umbrella policy is darn expensive.</p>
<p>I am no insurance guy, but I have talked to my agent, here is the story.</p>
<p>First of all, Umbrella policy only covers the libility, which means if you did some one wrongly and causes injury that is beyond the current policy can cover at that time Umbrella will kick in.</p>
<p>As I understand, umbrella coverage starts with a deductable of 500K. All your liability insurance will be from Once company then the umbrella will be covering. It does seems the annual premium is low but there are other costs involved.</p>
<p>ALL your libility insurance must be covered to 500k, now, that is your home insuance and auto insurance has to be 500K, not the normal 100/300 for the auto and in my home owner’s policy personal liability insurance at 500K is only $37. I figure the auto liability insurance alone will increase by $100/car or more, depends the area you live. That is $200 more per year plus the $150 for the umbrella, total of $350/year.</p>
<p>What do you buy? you are covered with $1.5 million of Liability insurance. I am not sure this will ever been used in your life time. </p>
<p>One more thing, with that umbrella insurance, you will be magent of law suite, as lawyers can find out that you/your insurance co have the money to pay them.</p>
<p>Oh, apparently umbrella policy is more expensive in CA than elsewhre, mine is $380/year</p>
<p>Umbrella or excess liability policies are usually reasonably priced and are very important to have if your assets exceed the liability coverage included on your auto and homeowners policies, which may be around $300K. Ideally you’d get your umbrella policy from the same insurer that writes your home and auto policies. In our case we were able to lower our liability limits on the home and auto policies to the minimum and let the umbrella provide the higher liability coverage. It’s also possible for the umbrella to extend coverage to another location. For example, I added my son’s off-campus apartment (I co-signed the lease) to our umbrella. I rest much better knowing that should some kind injury occur at the apartment, we are covered.</p>
<p>Ours is 216 per year and we are in CA. Small business owners and rental property owners so our exposure is greater than the standard homeowner. Additionally we are lucky in that we still have a lot of equity in both properties. This is the reason I mentioned in my earlier post that each situation is different. This should be discussed with your insurance agent or broker.</p>
<p>My umbrella policy is more than $800/year. It looks like I should shop around. Who do you recommend?</p>
<p>We use Geico. I get the best deal with them because our auto and homeowners is there and you get a break for the trifecta. I also get Geico auto breaks because I’ve been insured with them on auto since high school ! And good driver and good student discounts. I have shopped the auto before but Geico was always cheaper.</p>
<p>Many states have ridiculously low minimum requirements for liability insurance. It amazes me that anyone would risk driving without adequate protection.</p>
<p>Our insurance was VERY clear…if the title was in the kid’s name…the insurance had to be also. We kept the cars and kids’ insurance in OUR names…simply put…our kids couldn’t afford this anyway…and an individual policy for someone with “youthful driver status” was costly. We got a multi driver/multi car discount also.</p>
<p>Umbrella policies are a good idea if you have a reasonable amount of assets to protect and/or you have contact with youth. Both H & I are involved with scouts and drive kids around all the time. God forbid anything happens, but you can blow through your auto policy liability quickly. To get the best rates, you should have it with the same insurer you have your auto & home policy with.</p>
<p>Just bought a car for S to have at school. Insurance much lower if he is on our policy. (we own the car $ wise). Don’t forget that you can get a discount for their good grades.
Our financial guy told us a few years ago that if you have young drivers in your home you should have a 3-5,000,000 umbrella policy.</p>