Your auto policy is probably the most under-thought coverage you own.

More than the District minimum, and the District's own statute gives you an unusually clear lever to do something about it.

The legal floor under the Compulsory/No-Fault Motor Vehicle Insurance Act is $25,000 per person and $50,000 per accident of third-party bodily injury liability and $10,000 of property damage liability. Those are the numbers in D.C. Code § 31-2406(b) and (c), and they are a floor rather than a plan. One serious injury claim settles well past $50,000, and a District judgment above your limit is collected from you: savings, home equity, future wages.

The District also requires uninsured motorist coverage you cannot be sold a policy without: $25,000 per person, $50,000 per accident, and $5,000 of property damage subject to a $200 deductible. Here is the part worth acting on. Under § 31-2406(f)(4) a named insured can require higher uninsured limits on a published schedule, up to $100,000 per person and $300,000 per accident, and up to $25,000 of uninsured motorist property damage. That is a request, not a negotiation. Most District drivers have never been told the option exists.

Underinsured motorist coverage is optional and is the gap we find most often. Section 31-2406(c-1) says the insurer must offer it, but once it has been rejected the insurer need not offer it again and is not required to obtain or keep a written rejection. Note too that a District policy may include terms preventing the stacking of uninsured and underinsured coverages, so two vehicles does not mean two limits.

For context on how exposed that leaves you, the Insurance Research Council's Uninsured and Underinsured Motorists: 2017-2023 study put the countrywide uninsured rate at 15.4 percent in 2023, ranging from 5.7 percent in Maine to 28.2 percent in Mississippi, with the District among the highest. The same study found the District has the lowest underinsured rate in the country at 4.6 percent. The District risk is the driver with no coverage at all, not the driver with thin coverage.

So our recommendation in the District starts at $250,000 per person and $500,000 per accident of liability, uninsured motorist limits raised toward the $100,000 and $300,000 ceiling the statute allows rather than left at the floor, underinsured coverage actually in force rather than rejected, PIP considered on its merits, and an umbrella above the auto and the home.

Usually yes. DC requires carriers to offer PIP, but you can sign a waiver to remove it. The waiver saves a few dollars a month but eliminates first-dollar coverage for your medical bills and lost wages after an accident, regardless of fault.

If you have low-deductible health insurance and reliable income protection, the waiver might be fine. For most people, keeping PIP at $2,500–$5,000 is worth the small premium.

Often, yes — though there's a lot of room to manage the increase if it's done thoughtfully. The structure matters: which vehicle the teen is "primarily assigned" to, whether they're a listed driver or excluded driver, what discounts they qualify for (good student, driver's ed completion), and what carrier you're on.

This is one of the conversations where a real advisor pays for themselves several times over. We've helped families cut the teen-driver premium increase by 30–50% just by restructuring the policy correctly.

Sometimes on the initial quote — and that's part of how captive carriers compete. The honest answer is that year-one pricing is not the same as year-three or year-five pricing, and captive carriers often price-cut at acquisition then increase rates over time.

The bigger difference, though, is the structure. A captive agent can only sell their company's auto product, even if it doesn't fit your situation. We work across Erie, Chubb, Cincinnati, and others — and recommend what actually fits, which is sometimes more expensive on day one and almost always less expensive over a five-year horizon.

You call us first, and in the District there are a few specifics worth knowing before anything happens.

At the scene. If anyone is injured, call 911. DC DMV's own guidance for a crash without injuries is to complete the DDOT Non-Injury Checklist and Guide and notify your insurance company, and it says plainly: do not report the crash to DC DMV. Photograph all four corners of both vehicles, the plates, the scene from two directions, and the other driver's insurance card. If the other car is on out-of-District plates, photograph them carefully; a vehicle operating here outside the District's registration system is a harder claim to chase.

One District rule that works in your favor. D.C. Code § 31-2406(a)(5) says no insurer selling motor vehicle insurance in the District shall increase the rates charged an insured on account of an accident unless it is first determined that the accident was caused by the fault of the insured. That is a real consumer protection and it is worth knowing before you assume a claim automatically costs you at renewal. It is also worth knowing your insurer must give you at least two insurance identification cards, and an electronic image on your phone is acceptable for production on demand.

Then call us before you call the carrier. Not to hide anything. A claim is a decision with consequences that last years, and there are cases where filing is clearly right, cases where paying out of pocket is clearly right, and cases in between where the answer turns on your deductible and whether the other driver's carrier will accept liability. We tell you which one you are in, and if the answer is file it, we open it with you and stay on it through resolution.

What we work through, in order. Which coverage applies: liability if you are at fault, collision for your own vehicle, uninsured motorist if the other driver has nothing, underinsured motorist if they have too little and you actually still have that coverage, PIP for medical bills if you kept it. Whether the garaging address on the policy matches where the car is really kept, because a mismatch is the most common reason a straightforward claim turns into a coverage review. Whether gap coverage is in force if the car is financed or leased and likely a total loss. And whether the lienholder is listed correctly, because a wrong lienholder delays a settlement by weeks for no reason.

Two practical notes for District drivers. If your coverage ever lapses, surrender your tags to DC DMV immediately: insurers are required to notify DC DMV of cancellations, and an uninsured registration draws fines and suspension rather than a quiet warning. And if the car was stolen rather than crashed, MPD's own prevention guidance is worth reading in advance, because comprehensive coverage and your deductible are the whole conversation in a theft claim.

Washington, DC is an at-fault (tort) jurisdiction: the driver who causes an accident is responsible for the resulting damages. DC also requires insurers to offer PIP for first-party medical coverage, requires UM/UIM coverage that you cannot waive, and follows a strict contributory-negligence rule, which makes carrying strong liability limits especially important.