How To Ruin Your Child's Financial Future

Many times we get calls to exclude a young driver from the parent's auto policy because their child is away at school. Sure, you'll save a few bucks, but what will you do when they show up unexpected and want to take the car to go to the movies or a friend's house?

And that's just your car. What if your child borrows someone's car at school? Or what if they drove home from the party because they were the sober one, and what coverage was on that car?

You spend thousands, tens of thousands of dollars sending your child to school for a better life, and then BAM! a car accident ruins their life because they were an excluded driver -- that is, NO coverage.

And what about too little coverage? An accident with property damage could go well beyond the minimum limits required by law. In order to register and drive your car in Massachusetts, the state requires that you have a minimum level of certain types of auto insurance coverage. These include:

• Bodily Injury to Others: $20,000 per person / $40,000 per accident
• Personal Injury Protection: $8,000 per person, per accident
• Bodily Injury Caused by an Uninsured Auto: $20,000 per person / $40,000 per accident
• Damage to Someone Else's Property: $5,000 per accident

Really, folks, when you consider hospital costs, those minimums will leave you hanging. And if your adult child is responsible, the judgment could follow them for years and years.

Moral of the story — KEEP YOUR CHILD INSURED!