Adult Children on Your Policies Can Create Coverage Gaps
These days, many families are assisting their adult children financially far longer than parents of earlier generations. And that kind of support for college, and sometimes basic survival, can create insurance coverage gaps for the adult child that can be a major risk to their parents' financial wellbeing.
If you have an adult child who is still financially dependent on you in some way, it's critical that you secure appropriate insurance coverage. Issues that will affect coverage include if they are a full- or part-time student, where they live and how old they are.
Homeowner's insurance
Under a homeowner's policy, the insured is limited to:
This causes issues for some people, as many children are still in college beyond the policy cut-off date. You could run into coverage gaps for their contents and personal liability if:
The picture gets murkier these days as well because many parents are renting an apartment or buying condos for their adult children to live in. Some parents may mistakenly think that since they are footing the bill, their insurance may still cover their adult child. But that's not the case.
Auto coverage
Typical auto insurance policies will include family members under the coverage. The standard policy form defines a family member as "a person related to you by blood, marriage or adoption who is a resident of your household."
For your adult child's vehicle, insurance coverage is determined by:
As you can see, even if a parent owns the title of the car and it's insured under the parent's policy, if the adult child is driving the vehicle and lives on their own, they could run into coverage issues in certain instances.
According to West Bend Mutual Insurance Company, the following scenarios could leave you with coverage gaps:
If you have an adult child on your policy, play it safe and give us a call so we can go over your policy and circumstances with you to identify any possible coverage gaps.
Without the proper insurance protection for injuries and damages, you risk significant financial liabilities that you may not be able to cover.
Edward Coogan
Business Insurance Associates
2127 Espey Crt, Suite 306
Crofton, MD 21114
410-409-7873
ecoogan@biabroker.com