Well, you can eat up the $1 mil pretty quickly, especially if you say lose a leg in a collision. I was talking to the manager of the Allstate office, he was telling me they had a client who lost his leg below knee in bike crash. Allstate ended up buying the client a house that was already wheelchair accessible, as it was cheaper to do that, then to retrofit, the client's first home.
As he explained, yes Allstate gets the old house and sells it, BUT your AB doesn't get "replenished" by the amount your current home sold for, so the clients AB took the hit of $600,000 just for the new home, and required assistive devices etc. Then the rehab and prosthesis, ate VERY quickly into the remaining $400,000.
Even, though my collision was pretty mild, in less than a year I have eaten almost $30,000 of the $50,000, (I was moved out of MIG category, $3,500 max, even before I left hospital), they are looking to do some modifications to my shop, to assist me, to return to work a bit more, (I am still just permitted to work 3 hours a day a couple of days a week, 10 months post claim). The cost of the equipment and renos are pegged at about another $15,000. Now once I hit the $50,000 the lawyers will duke it out to have me declared, (as a "legal definition"), as a catastrophic injury, which will then open the AB to the $1 mill max. They are saying I will likely require some form of Physio for the remainder of my life, Which would be about $20,000 per year.
What most don't understand they see $1 mil for medical, in their policy. Well just because you have it doesn't mean you can access it. There are three "stages" to the medical of AB
Minor Injury Category, (MIG). Gives you $3,500 max in rehab etc. This it the one insurers TRY to keep most claims in.
Then once you surpass the $3,500 level the mid range category is $3,501 - $50,000. In order to get to that you will likely require a Lawyer to help you fight for it.
Then the last category is catastrophic injury category which covers $50,001 - $1 million.
No idea why they didn't come up with various other categories, between $50,000 and 1 mil.
Joe, that is why I went with, same level as last year, which by doing so actually increases the limits to $1 mil of each, then $3 mil total. After having two claims, (different companies), I have learned a LOT about the insurance regs and how insurers work. Also me being self employed, there is no such thing as too much protection. Obviously everyone's circumstances are different, work coverage, families, (I have no dependents), etc. so I suggest everyone talk to their financial planner, or just look at what your situation is and decide is it worth it. In my case it cost pretty much the exact amount of my "reduction" form last year to get slightly increased coverage.
