Watch the video above: Insurance companies encourage increased liability coverage
SASKATOON – A big push is underway by Saskatchewan Government Insurance (SGI) Canada and the Auto Fund for more people to get increased liability insurance.
Experts say people often don’t realize the implications of having only basic plate insurance, until they’ve been in an accident.
Since January, all licence issuers that are also brokers in Saskatchewan are being prompted as they walk through plating with a motorist to ask if they would like to purchase more liability insurance.
“Insurance just isn’t about protecting your vehicle, it’s about protecting your family and so some of our customers with basic plate insurance could be uninsured,” said Jeff Estabrooks, product manager with SGI.
In most cases, with basic plate insurance you get a $700 deductible and $200,000 in liability insurance. Experts say this is not enough.
“It’s a good start but you should have a minimum of one or two or three or five million dollars liability insurance to protect yourself and to protect your family,” said Bill Schwandt with Hoffmann Kool Insurance in Saskatoon.
With more people choosing to drive further distances, SGI officials say most motorists could benefit from purchasing extra liability insurance and the family protection that comes with it.
“If you’re traveling out of province to a tort jurisdiction, you are more likely to get sued if you’re at fault for the accident,” said Estabrooks.
This is especially crucial if you travel to the United States where insurance minimums can be as low as $25,000.
“There’s lots of horror stories out there of claims examples where people have had some huge costs that they’re responsible for and it’s not expensive to buy that auto extension policy,” said Schwandt.
“Some farmer hits a train at a level crossing, knocks a train off the tracks and there’s one or two million dollars cost to putting the train back on the tracks and that poor farmer only has his licence plate insurance on his grain truck of $200,000 liability insurance.”
According to officials, you can pay as little as $50 a year to top your liability limit. Just under 50 per cent of all vehicles on provincial highways have this extra auto extension insurance coverage.
“In Manitoba, our neighbour to the east, 90 per cent of their residents have some sort of extra insurance over and above the basic. I think that’s probably more than we could hope for but we would like to get it to 70 or 75 per cent of people having that extra insurance,” said Estabrooks.
SGI says auto extension insurance can be purchased at any time through your independent insurance broker however replacement coverage on a new vehicle must be done within 30 days of purchasing it.
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