Eugene Lux is a retired state senator, former chair of the Senate Financial Institutions and Insurance Committee and board member of the Senior Lobby. To the average consumer, shopping for automobile insurance can be a daunting task. If you follow a few basic tips when purchasing insurance, you can purchase enough coverage to protect yourself, your loved ones and your hard-earned assets adequately. In Washington, there are laws setting minimum liability insurance limits. This means that every driver in the state must have at least that much liability insurance coverage.
Liability coverage protects drivers who are at fault for an accident up to the liability limit.
Frankly, minimum policies should generally only be purchased by young drivers, students and people with few assets and individuals with low incomes. If you can afford higher premiums, it might be a good idea to buy more coverage. The higher your limits, the more premiums you pay, but the more protection your assets have if you get into an accident. Too often, valid auto claims cannot be recovered because the negligent driver does not have insurance. An estimated 25 percent of drivers on the road do not carry liability insurance of any kind.