Most of us are insured against losing. Clemson University is insured for winning.
Insurance is a small expense now that pays out later, and there’s an insurance policy for everything, even football. Last year, Clemson University’s athletic department paid $272,000 toward an insurance policy that covered performance bonuses for their athletic coaches. That policy paid over $1.5 million in bonuses, saving the athletic department $1.2 million.
The policy was the same price this year…but the university didn’t renew it…
…which may cost them up to $2 million of 
their own money in coach bonuses if Clemson wins the National Championship in January  (and even if – cover your ears – they don’t win, the university is still paying out more than the $272,000 premium they would have paid.)
…because in the short-run, it may have cost a little more.Â
According to Greenville News, Clemson University could have ended up paying an additional $50,000 over the cost of the coach’s actual bonuses had they not made it to the Sugar Bowl if they had bought the insurance policy. They weighed the options, they opted out, and they were wrong.
Too bad you can’t buy insurance after the fact.
Sound familiar?Â
Unlike a car accident, it’s wonderful to go to the Sugar Bowl and maybe win the National Championship. Unfortunately, a football team is statistically far less likely to go to the Sugar Bowl than motorist is likely to be involved in a car accident. It’s also far more likely that a motorist doesn’t have enough insurance to cover the damages to your vehicle or your person in the event they cause an accident.
Do you have uninsured/under-insured motorist (UM/UIM) coverage?Â
Even if the accident is 100% the other driver’s fault, you’re still responsible for paying the tow truck, the mechanic, and the hospital bills, even if that other driver has no insurance or not enough insurance to cover the accident.
For the cost, UM/UIM insurance is one of the best add-on policies you can buy. After all, you can’t tell just by looking at them which car or which driver has enough insurance to cover an accident. You can’t tell in a split second how badly another driver’s negligence could hurt you or your property. However, UM/UIM insurance will cover you in case the other motorist doesn’t have insurance (uninsured) or doesn’t have enough insurance (under-insured) to cover the damages caused in a car accident.
You can’t predict the future, so buy as much insurance as you can.
Your insurance company is required by law to make you a meaningful offer of UM/UIM insurance coverage of at least $25,000, but you can purchase UM/UIM up to the amount of liability coverage that you carry on your policy, in order to cover the full cost of an accident just in case. Every driver and every vehicle in your home should be insured against UM/UIM accidents. In fact, you can “stack” your UM/UIM insurance on every vehicle in the house so that every resident relative in your household has the benefit of the total amount of UM/UIM insurance carried on all cars in the household.
As personal injury lawyers, we hear from people all the time that they wished they had purchased insurance to cover the losses they incurred from uninsured or under-insured motorists. No one thinks an accident will happen until it actually does. Maybe you’ll never get into a car accident. Maybe, possibly, no one in your family will, either. Is that a risk you’re willing to take?
Thought you had UM/UIM insurance?Â
If you’ve been seriously injured in an accident but your insurance company claims you don’t have the UM/UIM insurance you thought you had, or if they never meaningfully offered you any, you may be able to reform the policy to include UM/UIM insurance up to the amount of liability coverage on the vehicle involved in the accident. Call the experienced automobile collision lawyers at David R. Price, Jr., P.A., for a free case evaluation. They will examine all of your coverages in order to identify all potential sources of insurance coverage.
