Family Law

COVER YOUR BUMPER

By Fox Rothschild

In the scheme of things, worrying about car insurance while n the process of divorce may seem unimportant. You likely have other, more pressing issues to address, such as who is getting the house, or the pension, or Thanksgiving with the kids. So long as the existing policy is being paid, it is easy to assume you are covered.

Unfortunately, it may not be so simple. In fact it is imperative that you confirm you are sufficiently covered, especially in certain situations. A quick call to you agent may save a lifetime of expense and aggravation in the event of an accident.

First, if either you or your spouse moves and takes a car, make certain your auto insurance carrier is notified. Most policies list the home address for each car. If the car is no longer garaged at the address listed on the policy, the policy may be canceled or any claims you incur may be denied.

Along the same lines, you will want to ensure that your policy does not require that you and your spouse remain residents of the same household. Many policies provide discounts for married couples, but require that the spouses are living together. If you are no longer living together, as required by the discounted policy, the policy may again be cancelled.

In addition, it may be a good time to review whether you need the same level of coverage as you did when you married. It’s likely that the coverage amounts you chose when married were based on joint assets. You may have different assets now and different coverage needs. It may make sense to raise your deductibles and/or eliminate comprehensive and collision coverage on the car you took from the marriage. Now that you are single or separated, the cost may outweigh the benefit.

One should also look at how to cover children who can drive. The most important consideration is honesty with your insurer. It may be less expensive to list the child’s car as primarily at one party’s home or the other. But you do not want to end up with the child’s car listed as garaged at your home for cost reasons when in reality it is garaged at the other parent’s home. Again, this may create a situation where the policy is cancelled or a claim is not covered. Your insurance agent can help you work through the realities of your particular situation so that you are not at risk of being uncovered but are not paying unnecessarily high premiums either.

Finally, it is a good time to get cars re-titled and separately insured. If there is a battle over what that car is worth agree to change title without prejudice. That preserves your right to assert that the autos should be values differently when divided by a Court.
 

Full post as published by Pennsylvania Family Law on September 23, 2008 (boomark / email).