Monday, April 5, 2010

Liberty Mutual's "Responsibility" Means Wasting Money AND Denying Coverage To Its Policyholders

Some of you may have seen Liberty Mutual's commercials about "responsibility," a PR campaign to paint themselves as a "responsible insurance company," whatever that means (think "jumbo shrimp" and other oxymorons). Recently someone sent me this link, an insufferably long movie short (hey, there's another oxymoron)that paints lawyers in an unflattering light. After watching it, I wondered: what on earth is the point? To poison the public about lawyers (gee, now there's a novel idea that's never been tried before)? To sell more Liberty Mutual policies by wasting thousands on a lame movie that takes a swipe at the legal profession?


If I were a Liberty Mutual insured/policyholder, I'd be wondering: how much did it cost to produce this hokum and how much more am I paying for my car insurance premiums because of it? Liberty's cute little lawyer bashing movie aside, let's focus on something substantive, like what you're actually buying with a Liberty Mutual auto policy and what exclusions Liberty is inserting in its policies that avoid responsibility for paying its own policyholders in Ohio auto collisions.

Here's a little exclusion that Ohio Liberty Mutual insureds might want to know about:

"We do not provide Liability Coverage for any 'insured' for 'bodily injury' to you or any 'family member.'"


What does this exclusion mean? If a family is in the Liberty insured "family vehicle" and Dad falls asleep and wrecks the car, seriously injuring his wife and kids, there is no liability coverage for Dad's negligent driving. It means that if Grandma and Grandpa allow grandson to drive their "insured vehicle" and grandson wrecks the car, injuring Grandma and Grandpa, there is no liability coverage for grandson's driving negligence.

Simple: exclusion means no responsibility to pay for family injury claims in the "insured vehicle."

Of course, there's no "movie" about all the fine print exclusions that some companies like Liberty Mutual have in their "full coverage" policies. How's that for "responsibility?"

P.S. Not all Ohio insurance companies have this exclusion. To find out more, order our book, FREE to all Ohio residents: "How To Buy Car Insurance In Ohio" (just click on the book cover on our home page).

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