Coverage explained
Uninsured motorist coverage in Florida
Uninsured motorist (UM) coverage pays for your injuries when the driver who caused the crash has no bodily injury coverage or not enough. Florida insurers must offer it, and turning it down takes your signature.
What it pays for
- Medical bills and lost income beyond PIP
- Pain and suffering
- Hit-and-run injuries
- You and passengers in your car
What it doesn’t
- Damage to your car (that is collision)
- More than your bodily injury limit: UM can’t be higher
A real-life example
A driver with only the Florida minimum runs a red light and breaks your leg. PIP pays 80% of your first $10,000 in medical bills and lost income. Your remaining bills, lost wages and pain and suffering come to $60,000, and the other driver has no bodily injury coverage. Your $100,000 uninsured motorist coverage pays it, up to your limit.
Illustrative numbers. What a claim pays depends on your policy wording, limits and deductible.
The Florida rule
Insurers must offer UM equal to your bodily injury limits. Rejecting it, or choosing lower limits or non-stacked UM, requires a signed state-approved form.
What most drivers pick
Match UM to your BI limit. Families with two or more cars often compare stacked against non-stacked.
What it does to the price
UM is usually one of the smaller lines compared with what it protects. Stacked costs more than non-stacked.
Questions
Stacked or non-stacked?
Stacked multiplies your UM limit by the number of cars on the policy. Non-stacked is one limit and costs less.
Is UM required?
No, but it must be offered, and declining it takes a signed form.
Go deeper
Other coverage
- Personal injury protection
- Property damage liability
- Bodily injury liability
- Collision
- Comprehensive
- Full coverage
- Gap and loan or lease payoff
- Rental and roadside
- SR-22
- FR-44
- Non-owner car insurance
- Rideshare and delivery
Your policy’s wording decides what’s covered. David can walk you through yours.