LiMu Emu and Doug
Hey {{first_name}},
Unless you've been living under a rock for the past two years, it's safe to assume that everyone reading this newsletter is familiar with the current Liberty Mutual ad campaign. The ad campaign in question centers around an emu and a guy with a mustache and shades at all times named Doug. Doug and the emu, affectionately known as LiMu, draw up harebrained schemes that would make Wile E. Coyote proud in order to spread their simple message about car insurance. But is it really that simple?
The crux of the ads revolves around Doug saying:
Liberty Mutual lets you customize your car insurance so that you only pay for what you need.
The implication is that rather than using other insurance providers that may charge you for services you will never use, Liberty Mutual will only charge you for insurance services that you will need and use. But isn't the whole idea of insurance that you have insurance in case something were to go wrong? So how would you know which insurance services you would need prior to actually needing those services?
Let's use an example here to further my argument. There's a type of supplemental car insurance known as Uninsured (or Underinsured) Motorist Coverage. This type of insurance is not required in every state, but the idea is that if you are involved in a car accident with someone who does not have insurance you can tap into this resource to help cover any expenses you incur from the car accident. This also applies to situations where someone's insurance limits may be too low to cover the costs of repairs to your super expensive vehicle. Looking at you Tesla drivers, but I digress.
If you decide to decline Uninsured Motorist Coverage because it's not mandatory that would lower your insurance rates and be more cost-effective as long as you don't need that coverage. But if a situation comes up where you needed Uninsured Motorist Coverage, you would not be able to add it after the fact and would be on the hook to pay out of pocket for any damage caused by the uninsured motorist. Therefore, it is impossible to only pay for what you need because the concept of insurance itself is based on uncertainty.
I'm currently looking into bundling my home and auto insurance and I haven't decided on an insurance provider yet, but I know I won't be going with Liberty Mutual because I don't like being lied to. Flo would never.
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