Guys and gals, I occasionally come across claims where people run into their limits on their auto insurance. I really encourage you to raise your liability limits to whatever you can comfortably afford. I'd like to generate some discussion on what liability limits people carry and WHY. The state minimum from property damage in Colorado is $15,000. That's pretty low. Shockingly, the state minimum in California is only $5,000.

Anyway, on to some examples of property damage limits and where having low limits can get you into trouble. Please remember that there are many more things to run into than just vehicles when you are driving. Super cars may be rare, but all the other things are not.

$25,000 is low when you rear-end a 53' straight deck cattle hauler and put it out of commission for 3 months. It might only take $10,000 in parts to repair, but there is also the downtime and lost income (for both the business and employee) to consider.

$50,000 is low when you let your rental car roll into a Beachcraft King Air 200. <- go ahead and check the current sales prices on those, even if you go back 10-15 years in model year).

$100,000 in property damage is getting up there, until you black out behind the wheel and drive through a red light, hit a car, jump the curb and make contact with not one, but TWO houses.

$100,000 is the most common coverage amount I see. What happens when while driving on the highway, you bounce off a car on your left, collide with a semi-truck on your right, the semi-truck loses control off the shoulder on the right and impacts an elevated railroad track, flipping and totalling the truck, destroying ALL the time sensitive cargo in the full trailer, not to mention the damage to the railroad tracks?

Like I said before, there are a lot more things to crash into that cost a whole lot more than just an expensive car. For full disclosure, I almost never have limits issues, and I usually don't even think about a limits issue when someone carries at least $100,000, but stuff can, and does happen, and you don't want to get yourself in a bad spot if you can avoid it.

I'm not trying to come off as a shill or anything, I just really feel bad when I have to break the news to someone that the damage they've caused is beyond what I can pay for. I know I sure as heck wouldn't know what to do in that situation. Just something to consider.