Being the parent of a “Young Adult” brings many challenges. It seems that life moves even faster today and changes occur almost daily in their school, work and sometimes even where they live. This brings a myriad of problems and joys. Proper auto coverage can be one of those problems.
Auto policies today typically cover the parents and family members RESIDING IN THE HOUSEHOLD. Children are typically not listed as Named Insureds but simply as drivers in the household. The question often becomes, are they residents of the household? For example… a college student decides to stay at college during the summer to work and changes their address to their school address. Or, a student graduates, gets a job and moves out taking “their” car with them, which is still insured under the family policy.
In these type of situations, as long as the car is listed on the family policy, the child is covered driving that car – BUT ONLY THAT CAR. They no longer have liability coverage under your policy driving any other vehicle, nor is anyone else covered driving their vehicle. Other coverages such as Medical Payments, Uninsured Motorist, Underinsured Motorist, have the same limitation. The most comprehensive way to ensure that they have proper coverage is for them to have their own policy. A safe rule of thumb would be to contact us as soon as a young driver in your household considers moving out.
Another area of change is the type of jobs available to young adults. We are seeing more jobs involving the use of a vehicle, such as food delivery or driving for the ride share companies like Uber or Lyft. Almost all policies have exclusions or limitations for these types of usage. If anyone in your family is involved in these types of activities, let us know so we can advise what type of coverage is needed to better protect you and your family.
We appreciate your business and encourage you to visit our website, www.hsgwinsurance.com. There you can sign up for our Customer Portal, which provides you with 24/7 access to your policy information. If you have any questions regarding your insurance, please don’t hesitate to contact us.