My brother just bought a car today, it’s his first time having a car in his name. He bought it outright with no financing. He has been previously listed on my dad’s insurance and my dad was the titled owner of his old car. My dad’s Allstate agent (MA) told him for the best price to add this new car to his policy and my brother can be listed as the primary driver. This doesn’t make any sense to me because my dad has no financial interest in this car. Is it possible for my brother’s car to be on my dad’s insurance policy? They do live at the same address.
Posted by jb7734
11 Comments
Your brother needs his own policy.
Your dad, and any other household members, need to be listed on the policy.
The way to do this is your father and brother are registered as co-owners of the new car, your brother as the primary driver. If the agent wants to just add your brother as primary driver, get it in writing.
Some carriers will allow a vehicle owned by children to be rated on the parents’ policy. Depends on the companies guidelines.
Who’s name is on the title?
We have several cars owned by different people on our insurance.
I’m in MD.
Just make sure to carefully read the policy that is being signed. If you do not read this then you cannot blame anyone but yourself if the agent told you wrong or something goes wrong
This is allowed in MA, individual carriers may not allow it but as long as your brother is on the policy, it’s fine.
I have Allstate and I insured first cars for two nieces and one nephew who lived with me but my name was on the title.
I’m an agent in MA.
ETA— Apparently there are a few carriers in MA allowing this as of quite recently.
Original- Your agent is confused. In order to insure the car on your father’s policy, he would need to be a co-owner and co-registrant of the vehicle. This is not something that varies by company in MA.
Not only that, but it’s generally not great advice to have a parent co-sign/co-insure a car for a newer driver. In the event that the newer driver causes an accident (which is statistically probable), if it’s serious enough of a crash, the parent’s assets could be at risk. If the kid is over 18 and owns their own car & policy on their own, no one can go after their parents home in a lawsuit and they probably won’t be sued as long as they have good liability limits.
The best course of action is this: generally for the parents and kid to have their own policies, each with liability coverage maxed out at 250/500/250 for MA. Your liability coverages are the most important part of your policy. Especially in this state where minimums are horrifically low.
Once parents & kid each have a policy, they will each need to be listed as drivers on the others policy however any good agent in MA will find you carriers where you can be listed as deferred drivers and thus, not rated on each others policies.
It might be slightly more expensive to do it this way, but with insurance you aren’t looking for cheap, you’re looking for proper coverage so you don’t lose your property such as your home in the event of an accident.
Some carriers in MA are allowing this. Mapfre announced last month that if there is only one insured on the policy, that the child can be listed as second insured since they own the car.
Progressive allows this in MA too.
There are companies that would allow a child living at home to be listed with his car on the dads policy. It’s not unusual