If You Do One Thing to Protect Your Family, Make It This.
People often ask me: based on everything you’ve seen in serious injury and wrongful death cases, what’s the single most important thing I should do to protect my family?
The answer is straightforward—buy as much underinsured motorist (UIM) coverage as you can, and structure it correctly.
I’ve handled many cases where someone was doing nothing wrong—driving safely, following the rules—and their life changed because of another driver’s negligence. The injuries were significant, the financial impact was real, and yet the available insurance was shockingly small.
That’s because in Georgia, the minimum liability coverage is just $25,000. And in practice, many drivers carry only that. They also don’t have meaningful assets behind it. So even in a clear liability case involving serious injuries, there is often no real recovery beyond that minimal policy.
I recently represented a client who was hit by a distracted driver. There was no dispute about fault. But the at-fault driver had only minimum coverage. My client’s medical expenses alone quickly exceeded that amount. What made the difference—what actually protected them financially—was the UIM coverage they had in place ahead of time.
Without it, the outcome would have looked very different.
UIM coverage is not about protecting the other driver—it’s about protecting yourself. And for many families, it is the only meaningful layer of protection in a serious crash.
For those with higher incomes or assets, there are two additional points that matter:
First, make sure your UIM coverage is structured as “added-on” coverage (not reduced by the at-fault driver’s policy). In Georgia, that distinction is critical.
Second, think in terms of total protection across all policies. UIM can often be stacked across multiple vehicles, and in some cases, coordinated with an umbrella policy. The goal is to create a meaningful layer of protection that reflects your actual financial exposure—not the minimum limits someone else chose to carry.
My advice is simple: call your insurance advisor. Find out exactly what UIM coverage you have, how it is structured, and what it would cost to increase it. Then buy as much as you can reasonably afford.
It is one of the few decisions you can make in advance that gives you real control over what happens if something goes wrong.
