Legal to drive is not the same as protected.
The state requires just enough coverage to put a car on the road. Here is what we recommend instead, why the limits matter more than the price, and what happens when a claim runs past them.
THE SHORT VERSION
Massachusetts requires bodily injury coverage of 20/40, which means $20,000 per person and $40,000 per accident. A single serious injury can pass that in an afternoon.
Raising your liability limits and adding uninsured motorist coverage are usually small premium changes with very large consequences.
If you have any assets to protect, 100/300 is a sensible floor, and an umbrella sits above it for real peace of mind.
What an auto policy is really doing
An auto policy is doing several jobs beyond fixing your car. It pays for injuries and damage you cause to others. It covers your own medical costs. It repairs or replaces your vehicle. And it protects you when the other driver has little or no insurance of their own. Price shopping tends to focus on the last job, the car, while the larger financial risk lives in the first and the last.
Liability is the part that protects everything you own. If you are at fault in a crash that seriously injures someone, their medical bills, lost wages, and pain and suffering can climb far past a state minimum limit. Once your coverage is exhausted, the claim does not stop. It moves toward your income and your assets.
Why the pricier policy is often the better buy
Two auto policies can show the same monthly figure and carry very different risk. The cheaper one usually gets there by sitting at or near state minimum limits, dropping or thinning uninsured motorist coverage, or raising the deductible to a level that stings. None of that shows up until you file a claim.
The math is lopsided. Moving from 20/40 to 100/300 is often a modest annual difference. The exposure it removes is the difference between a covered claim and a judgment that follows you for years. Uninsured motorist coverage is the same story, a small line item that does an enormous job when the at fault driver cannot pay.
There is a practical benefit too. Adequate limits let your carrier handle the claim and, if needed, defend you. When your coverage is thin, you are the one exposed to the gap, and a routine accident turns into a personal financial problem.
Real-World Example
A left turn, two injuries, and a limit reached in a day.
A driver carrying the state minimum made a left turn against oncoming traffic. Two people in the other car were hurt, one seriously enough to need surgery and months away from work. Their medical bills and lost income moved past $40,000 quickly.
The at fault driver's 20/40 policy paid its full limit and stopped there. The remaining balance did not disappear. The injured parties pursued it, and the driver's savings and future wages were suddenly on the table.
A neighbor in almost the same accident carried 100/300 and a personal umbrella. Their coverage absorbed the entire claim, legal defense included. They paid nothing out of pocket beyond their deductible. The only real difference between the two drivers was a few dollars a month decided years earlier.
Not sure where your limits stand?
Send us your current declarations page. We will mark up what we would change and what we would leave alone.
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