A properly built auto policy in the Hudson Valley starts with at least $250,000/$500,000/$250,000 in split liability limits, though we prefer $500CSL or $1MM CSL in combined single limit coverage. It also includes full Additional Personal Injury Protection, comprehensive and collision coverage with $1,000 deductibles, rental reimbursement starting at $50 a day, Supplementary Uninsured/Underinsured Motorist coverage matched to your liability limits, and every licensed driver in your household listed on the policy, not just the one who happens to drive the car most.
Before we go further, it’s worth explaining what those numbers actually mean. $250,000/$500,000/$250,000 is a split limit, meaning it’s really three separate limits in one. The first number is the most your policy pays for injuries to any one person in an accident. The second number is the most it pays in total for all injuries combined if more than one person is hurt. The third number is the most it pays for damage to someone else’s property. From here on we’ll shorten it to 250/500/250 for the sake of readability. When we say we prefer combined single limit coverage instead, we mean taking those three separate numbers and combining them into one single number, such as $500,000 or $1,000,000, that applies to the whole claim rather than being split into three separate buckets. From here on we’ll shorten those to $500CSL and $1MM CSL.
We wrote this companion piece recently on how we build a homeowners policy, built around the idea that the goal isn’t the cheapest policy, it’s the best built one. The same thinking applies to auto insurance, and honestly it matters even more here, because car accidents involve other people. A poorly built auto policy doesn’t just put your own finances at risk. It can leave someone else seriously hurt with no way to be made whole, and leave you personally on the hook for the difference.
Here’s how we build an auto policy so that doesn’t happen.
Quick Answers
Is 250/500/250 in liability coverage enough? It’s our minimum, not our recommendation. We build most policies with $500CSL or $1MM CSL instead, because medical and legal costs after a serious accident routinely exceed the older, lower limits that used to be standard.
Why $1,000 deductibles on comprehensive and collision instead of $500? Because a $500 deductible costs noticeably more in premium, and small claims filed at that lower deductible tend to do more long term damage to your rate than the deductible savings are worth.
Do I really need to list my teenager on my auto policy? Yes. This isn’t optional, and it isn’t a way to save money. We’ll explain why below.
What Liability Limits Do We Build Into an Auto Policy?
Liability coverage pays for injury or property damage you cause to someone else in an accident you’re at fault for. New York requires a minimum amount, but that minimum was set decades ago and hasn’t kept pace with what a serious injury or a totaled vehicle actually costs today.
250/500/250 is the floor we build every policy on.
Where we can, we move clients into $500CSL or $1MM CSL instead. It’s simpler than split limits, and it removes the risk of running out of coverage in one category while there’s still money available in another.
What Is APIP and Why Do We Include It?
New York is a no-fault state, which means your own policy pays your medical bills and lost wages after an accident regardless of who caused it, up to $50,000 in basic no-fault coverage. That $50,000 number hasn’t moved in a long time, and it doesn’t stretch far after a serious injury involving hospitalization or extended time out of work.
Additional Personal Injury Protection, or APIP, extends that coverage beyond the basic $50,000. We build our auto policies with full APIP as a standard, because the gap between what basic no-fault covers and what a real injury actually costs can be significant, and it’s a gap you’d otherwise be paying out of your own pocket.
Why $1,000 Deductibles on Comprehensive and Collision?
Comprehensive coverage pays for damage to your car from things other than a collision, like a deer strike, a windshield crack, or a tree limb falling on the car. Collision coverage pays for damage from an accident involving another vehicle or object. The deductible is what you pay out of pocket before either coverage kicks in.
We build these at a $1,000 deductible. A $500 deductible sounds appealing, but it comes with a real cost difference in premium, and it also invites smaller claims, a cracked windshield here, a parking lot dent there, that quietly damage your claims history over time. Your claims history, sometimes called your loss experience, is one of the biggest factors insurance companies use to set your renewal price. A $1,000 deductible keeps the truly minor stuff off your record while still protecting you when something significant happens.
Why Rental Reimbursement Starting at $50 a Day?
Rental reimbursement pays for a rental car while yours is in the shop after a covered claim. We build this in at a minimum of $50 a day, and higher where we can get it.
Repair times have stretched out considerably over the past few years due to parts availability and labor shortages at body shops. A repair that used to take a week can now take a month or more. A policy without adequate rental coverage, or without it at all, can leave you paying for a rental out of pocket for weeks while your own car sits waiting on a part.
Why Is SUM Coverage the Single Most Undersold Part of an Auto Policy?
Supplementary Uninsured/Underinsured Motorist coverage, or SUM, pays you when the other driver is at fault but doesn’t carry enough insurance, or any insurance at all, to cover what you’re owed. In New York, SUM coverage can only be as high as your own liability limits. If you raise your liability to $500CSL but leave your SUM at the state minimum, you’ve left yourself protected against causing an accident but badly exposed to being the victim of one.
We’ve written a full article on how SUM coverage works and why the mismatch between liability limits and SUM limits is so common, so we won’t go deep into it here. What we will say plainly is this: check your current policy’s SUM limit against your liability limit right now. If they don’t match, you have a real gap, and it’s one of the most consequential gaps we see on policies that come across our desk.
Why Do We List Every Licensed Driver in the Household?
Every regular driver in your household, including a newly licensed teenager, needs to be listed on the policy. This isn’t a formality and it isn’t something we skip to save you money. Carriers are increasingly strict about this, and undisclosed regular drivers can lead to a reduced claim payout, a denied claim, or a canceled policy if it’s discovered after a loss.
We’re aware of at least one captive insurance company where agents have advised policyholders not to add a newly licensed child to the policy, telling them the teenager is covered anyway under the policy’s permissive use clause. That’s not an accurate description of what permissive use actually covers, and it’s worth understanding why.
Permissive use is meant to extend coverage to someone who borrows the car occasionally with the owner’s permission, like a friend driving it once while visiting. It was never designed to cover a regular resident driver who lives in the house and drives the car on an ongoing basis. A newly licensed son or daughter living at home falls squarely into the second category, not the first, and treating them as a permissive user instead of a listed driver is a misrepresentation that can come back to hurt you badly at claim time.
We list every licensed driver in the household unless that driver carries their own separate policy. It’s not the way to get the cheapest possible premium today. It’s the way to make sure the policy actually holds up the day you need it.
Our Philosophy: The Same as the House
Just like a homeowners policy, an auto policy built around the lowest possible price is a policy built to disappoint you exactly when you can least afford it. We’d rather walk you through real liability limits, real deductibles, and a real look at your SUM coverage today than have a hard conversation with you after an accident about what your old policy didn’t cover.
If you want to see how your current auto policy compares to a properly built one, bring it in. We’ll go through it line by line and show you exactly where you stand.
We’ve been doing business this way in the Hudson Valley for over 80 years. If you want to talk to a real person about your coverage, call us. No phone tree, no pressure, just a straight answer.