If you’ve reached the milestone of retiring from the daily grind – congratulations! There are a few items you should review and update on your Michigan auto insurance policy – changes likely to reduce your overall insurance costs.

Check the use of your vehicle

With most insurance companies the use of your vehicle is a factor in determining how much you pay for auto insurance. Vehicles are customarily rated as pleasure use, commuting to-and-from work, or business use. Pleasure use is typically the lowest cost rating classification, so check with your agent to make sure the use of your vehicle is updated to reflect your retirement.

Check your annual mileage

Just as the daily use of your vehicle affects insurance rates how many miles a year you put on a car can also impact how much you pay for auto insurance. Many insurance companies offer low mileage discounts, so be sure to ask about availability and qualifications.

Check your Personal Injury Protection (PIP) coverage

Every Michigan auto insurance policy includes Personal Injury Protection (PIP) coverage comprised of two parts: Medical Coverage and Work Loss Benefits/Replacement Services, both of which provide benefits for individuals injured in an auto-related accident.

The medical portion of PIP coverage pays medical bills resulting from an auto accident and is either rated as primary coverage, meaning the auto policy pays for all auto-related medical bills, or secondary/excess, in which case the auto policy only responds after a separate health insurance policy that covers auto-related accidents. If your retirement resulted in a change to your health insurance, such as switching from employer-provided medical insurance to Medicare, you should advise your agent of the change and may need to upgrade your auto policy to provide primary medical coverage.

Also, once you’ve retired you would no longer potentially benefit from or need work loss benefits if you were injured in an auto accident. You may be eligible to waive this portion of the PIP coverage and thereby reduce your auto insurance costs.

Since the PIP portion of a Michigan auto insurance policy is coverage that affects every driver covered by an auto policy you may not be able to make certain changes, such as waiving work loss benefits, until the change would be applicable to every insured driver.

Click here to get a quote.