Uninsured Motorist Coverage in Florida: What UM/UIM Covers and How to Check Yours

If a driver with no insurance, or not enough insurance, injures you in a crash, who pays for everything your own PIP doesn’t? In Florida the answer is often your own policy, but only if it includes Uninsured Motorist coverage (UM, also called UM/UIM). Many drivers aren’t sure whether they have it, or whether they turned it down years ago.

Here is what the coverage does, why it matters so much in Florida, and how to check your own policy in a few minutes.

What UM and UIM coverage are

• Uninsured motorist (UM) coverage pays you for bodily injury, including death, caused by an at-fault driver who has no bodily injury liability coverage. It protects you and the other people insured under your policy.
• Underinsured motorist (UIM) coverage applies when the at-fault driver has bodily injury liability coverage, but the limits are lower than your damages. Florida law treats that driver as "uninsured" for this coverage, so in Florida both situations are handled by the same coverage, usually labeled UM or UM/UIM.
• The Florida Department of Financial Services (DFS) explains that UM lets you collect from your own insurer what you could have collected from the at-fault driver if that driver had enough insurance. It can pay for medical expenses beyond PIP, lost wages, pain and suffering and other expenses, and it is normally paid in a lump sum once the extent of treatment is known.
• UM sits on top of PIP and other benefits. By law it doesn’t duplicate them; it covers the difference between those benefits and your damages, up to your UM limit.
• UM in Florida is injury coverage, not car coverage. Damage to your vehicle is a separate question: collision coverage, if you carry it, pays to repair your car regardless of fault.

Why UM matters so much in Florida

To register a car in Florida, you must show proof of just two coverages: Personal Injury Protection (PIP) and Property Damage Liability (PDL), with a minimum of $10,000 each. Bodily injury liability, the coverage that pays for injuries a driver causes to other people, is not required for most drivers. That means the driver who hits you may have no coverage at all for your injuries, or only low limits.

Your own PIP helps, but it has firm limits:

• PIP pays 80% of reasonable, medically necessary medical expenses, no matter who caused the crash, up to $10,000 (a limit shared with PIP’s disability benefits, which pay 60% of lost income).
• You must get initial care within 14 days of the crash for PIP to pay medical benefits.
• If a treating provider determines you did not have an emergency medical condition, PIP medical benefits are limited to $2,500.

After a serious injury, PIP can run out quickly. DFS points out that health insurance usually has deductibles and copayments, normally doesn’t cover a stay in a convalescent center, and doesn’t replace lost income, help at home or modifications such as a wheelchair ramp. When the at-fault driver has little or no bodily injury coverage, UM is the coverage designed to fill that gap.

How much UM coverage you have by default

When your auto policy includes bodily injury liability, Florida law requires the insurer to include UM at limits equal to your bodily injury liability limits, unless a named insured rejects UM or chooses lower limits in writing. Limits are written as two numbers: 50/100, for example, means $50,000 per person and $100,000 per accident.

This requirement is tied to bodily injury liability. If your policy carries only the state minimums (PIP and PDL), the law does not require the insurer to include UM, so ask your agent what your options are.

Stacked vs. non-stacked UM

When you buy UM in Florida, you make two decisions: the limits, and whether the coverage is stacked or non-stacked.

• Stacked UM is what Florida law provides unless you choose otherwise in writing. DFS gives this example: with three vehicles that each carry UM limits of 50/100, the limits are added together, for a total of $150,000 per person and $300,000 per accident.
• Non-stacked UM is an option insurers may offer on a state-approved form. If you accept it, limits for multiple vehicles are not added together, and if you are hurt while riding in a vehicle, the UM available is generally the coverage on that vehicle.
• An important difference even with one car: non-stacked UM generally does not apply if you or a family member living with you is injured while in a vehicle you own that isn’t insured for UM. DFS notes that in that situation only the stacked form would respond.
• If you accept non-stacked coverage, that choice carries over to your renewals until you ask to remove the limitation.

Not every insurer offers non-stacked UM, and policy wording differs, so ask your agent to explain how each option would work for your household.

You may have declined UM without realizing it

UM can be rejected, or lower limits chosen, only in writing on a form approved by the Florida Office of Insurance Regulation. By law, the heading of that form must say, in bold type: "You are electing not to purchase certain valuable coverage which protects you and your family or you are purchasing uninsured motorist limits less than your bodily injury liability limits when you sign this form. Please read carefully."

It’s easy to sign that form along with the rest of the application paperwork and forget about it. Three rules make that signature matter for years:

• When a named insured signs, the law presumes an informed, knowing rejection on behalf of everyone on the policy, including family members covered by the policy.
• The rejection or lower limit carries over to renewals and replacement policies with the same bodily injury limits, unless you ask for UM or higher limits in writing.
• Your insurer must remind you of your UM options at least once a year, in a notice attached to your premium notice. If you’ve been skipping that page, it’s worth reading.

How to check your declarations page

Your declarations page (the "dec page") is the summary of your policy: vehicles, drivers, coverages and limits. Here is how to check it:

1. Find your current declarations page in your policy documents or your insurer’s online account or app.
2. Look for a line labeled Uninsured Motorist, UM, UM/UIM or Uninsured/Underinsured Motorist Bodily Injury.
3. Compare the UM limits with your bodily injury liability limits. If UM is lower, lower limits were selected in writing at some point.
4. Look for the words stacked or non-stacked (sometimes "unstacked") next to UM, and check every vehicle listed.
5. If there is no UM line, or it says rejected or none, you most likely don’t have UM.
6. Not sure? Ask your agent for your dec page and a copy of any UM selection or rejection form on file. Remember that adding UM or raising your limits requires a written request.

What to do if an uninsured driver hits you

1. Get safe and call 911. Check for injuries, move out of traffic only if it’s safe, and stay at the scene. Florida law requires drivers in a crash with injuries to stop and remain there.
2. Report the crash to law enforcement. Florida law requires you to notify police immediately after a crash with injury, death, or apparent property damage of at least $500. Starting October 1, 2026, that property damage threshold rises to $2,000 (SB 488). Hit-and-run and DUI crashes must be reported too. DFS recommends contacting law enforcement whenever you can, even when the damage looks minor.
3. Exchange information. Drivers must give each other their name, address and vehicle registration number, and show their license on request. Ask for the other driver’s insurance information, and note it if they say they have none.
4. Take photos of the vehicles, license plates, the scene, road conditions and any visible injuries.
5. Get witness information: names, addresses and phone numbers.
6. Get the police report details. Write down the officer’s name and the report number, and ask for the Driver Exchange of Information form. Crash reports can take up to 10 days to become available from the FLHSMV Florida Crash Portal.
7. Get medical care right away. Don’t wait: PIP pays medical benefits only if you receive initial care within 14 days.
8. Call your insurance company and your agent as soon as you can. DFS warns that an insurer may deny a claim that isn’t reported in a timely manner.
9. Before you sign any settlement or release with the at-fault driver’s insurer, talk to your agent or attorney. If you have an underinsured motorist claim, Florida law requires written notice of the proposed settlement to your UIM insurer first.

Not sure if you have UM? Get a free coverage check

Our Free 5-Minute Coverage Check is the quickest way to find out. A licensed agent reviews your auto policy with you, including whether you have UM, your limits, and whether it’s stacked, and shows you the gaps. Free, no obligation, in English, Spanish or Russian.

You can also visit M&K Agency at 33550 S Dixie Hwy, Suite 102, Florida City, FL 33034, call (305) 859-3953, read more about auto insurance in Florida City or request a quote.

Coverage depends on the terms, limits and exclusions of each policy. Talk with a licensed agent before you change your coverage.