Reader question:
I’m a single parent and my son is now driving age. Should I add him to my insurance?
Emily
Fantastic question, Emily.
It’s one that a lot of single parents ask themselves, and it can be difficult to answer. After all, for many divorced parents, the child is living with their other parent part of the time, and it becomes a bit of game trying to figure out how to work with such things as school and social activities and, well, insurance. Not to mention, getting insurance for a teenager costs a lot, and is a stress on a single parent income. Depending on your car insurance company, though, you may not be required to have him on your insurance.
In order to find out your company’s ways, read your policy closely. If you and your ex have the same insurance company, your child might be covered by both so long as he’s covered by one within the same company. Others will include the teen automatically, as they consider anyone related to you by blood and living in your house to be insured under your policy. Others may require that the spouse with more custody insure the teen, while some require that it be the spouse who has custody while the kid is in school. To find out if you need to add your kid’s name to your policy, reading your policy is the first step. Some companies even require that both parents insure the teen, even if he is only at one house every other weekend.
Now for the practical reasons. If you find that your teen is not covered in some other way, the best thing to do is to add him to our policy, and suggest that your ex do the same. If your teen comes of age and you don’t add him to your policy and your company finds out, you could get in major trouble, especially if your teen gets in an accident and you have to file a claim. This could be considered misrepresentation, and in some states companies are allowed to void policies when it occurs. Considering that teens are much more likely to get in car accidents, it is very important to make sure they are covered in some way.
Cheers,
Fashun Guadarrama.