Can I Combine Insurance Policies?

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Attorney Galen Trine-McMahan | 888-634-7366 | Free Consult

“They [insurance companies] are not in the business of giving away money and they don’t like to if they can avoid it. So, they’re not going to go out and tell people to make claims… in fact they’re set up to get better bonuses or impress their bosses more by not paying out money and paying out less money to claimants.”

Insurance policies—be they home, auto, life, health, or otherwise—are full of fine print. You may be able to use this fine print in your favor and combine insurance policies to get a greater payout than expected. Don’t expect the insurance companies to tell you about them, though.

Galen Trine-McMahan is a personal injury attorney with Metier Law Firm in Denver, Colorado. In this interview, he explains the process of “insurance stacking” and how to find out if it applies to you.

To learn more, contact the attorney directly by calling 888-634-7366 or by submitting a contact form on this page. There is no charge for the consultation, and you never owe any out-of-pocket attorney fees.

Key Takeaways From Galen Trine-McMahan:

Insurance stacking is not often discussed. In fact, there’s a good chance you’ve never heard of it before; however, if you find yourself dealing with a personal injury claim, insurance stacking could be a valuable asset to your legal strategies as you seek compensation for your damages.

Insurance stacking is when you take insurance from multiple policies and combine them for greater benefit.

When seeking compensation for damages, there could be sources of insurance you haven’t even considered. For example, if someone who lives in your house has insurance, it might cover you in the case of a car wreck. Or perhaps a policy on your car covers you for damages incurred as a specific result of using the crosswalk. In these types of situations where multiple policies apply to your situation, you may be able to “stack” these insurance claims on top of each other to achieve a greater payout.

Insurance companies will try to avoid paying out whatever money they can.

When an insurance company evaluates your claim, they usually aren’t considering the damages incurred to your life, rather they’re calculating what the perceived risk of losing money is to them.

If you don’t have a trial attorney on board, the insurance company may try to offer you a low-ball settlement.

It’s a good idea to find an attorney to help with your case rather than try to handle it alone, and there are a few reasons for this.

First, if the insurance company knows you don’t have a trial attorney on board, they may try to low-ball you with a bad settlement and there wouldn’t be much you could do.

Secondly, if you are going to try insurance stacking as a way to gather compensation, a lot of this is only possible as a result of statements written in the fine print of different policies, which can be complex and difficult to identify even for some attorneys, and you would likely find yourself lost doing so on your own.
Thirdly, after a car accident and injury, your main focus should be healing and recovery. Having a lawyer allows them to take care of the legal matters on your behalf while you try to make a smooth return to day-to-day life.

Insurance companies know which attorneys go to court and which ones don’t.

This is another reason it’s a good idea to hire not only an attorney, but a trial attorney. Trial attorneys are trained in client advocacy and generally have more experience actually taking their cases to court than other lawyers who typically work toward a settlement out of court.

If the insurance company sees that your lawyer normally doesn’t go to court, they know they can offer you less money than you deserve and likely get away with it. If they see you have an experienced trial attorney, they know it will be harder to cheat you.

Many attorneys don’t charge for consultations, and most work on contingency.

Attorneys who work on contingency don’t get paid until and unless they win your case. With this in mind, whatever reasons a person may have for not hiring an attorney diminish significantly. If you have been injured and think insurance stacking could be the key to your case, reach out to an attorney and see what they can do.

To learn more, contact Galen Trine-McMahan directly by calling 888-634-7366 or by submitting a contact form on this page. There is no charge for the consultation, and you never owe any out-of-pocket attorney fees.

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