20 Year old step daughter getting car and license soon...need advice!

[3d]

Have her put everything under her own name. She's 20. Time to cut that cord.
A name on a piece of paper may not seem like much, but it's a good experience for her to own something without Mommy and Daddy's name attached to it... especially the insurance bill.

[AlphaDog]

What does she do? The liability issue most certainly has to be addressed, because she's considered an adult. At 20, I'm leaning toward saying she should be taking full responsibility for both car ownership and insurance, although, if she's a full time student, a good argument could be made for doing otherwise.

[RAMd®d]

I'm just sayin'

[thermarest]

Hmmmm....so...the people here who are suggesting that he would take on liability for her actions by being listed on the same insurance policy, are ya'll lawyers? This surprises me a lot, but I guess I don't have any true basis to argue.

Price-wise, you will very much be better off if she has insurance through the same company using the same address as you. My gf and I get a substantial "multi-car discount" because we share the same address. My dad and I used to get the same when I used his address well into my 20's. In each case, the actual policy numbers were different and the bills were separate.

As an aside, if you've been with State Farm for many years I would suggest shopping around for both home and auto. There is really no benefit to being loyal to an insurance company. I cut my homeowner's from $1100/year to $490/year.

[AlphaDog]

thermarest wrote:
Hmmmm....so...the people here who are suggesting that he would take on liability for her actions by being listed on the same insurance policy, are ya'll lawyers? This surprises me a lot, but I guess I don't have any true basis to argue.

From my point of view and experience, the bigger liability aspect would be ownership of the car. Insurance follows the vehicle, so the owner of the vehicle can be held liable for damages, regardless of whether or not they were driving it. This is a much better question to pose to the insurance agent, regardless of who that might be.

[john-o]

It's not "liability for her actions", i.e. "learning responsibility"; it's literally legal liability for any damages awarded as the result of a lawsuit stemming from an accident. In other words, if she gets sued as the result of an accident, and it's serious enough, the parents could lose all their assets. We've dealt with that possibility by paying for an umbrella policy, but to each his/her own...

[iamrfixit]

thermarest wrote:
Hmmmm....so...the people here who are suggesting that he would take on liability for her actions by being listed on the same insurance policy

My insurance agent explained it to me like this. In the event of a serious accident or fatality even the maximum level of insurance might not be enough to satisfy the judgement. It would be pointless to go after a young person who doesn't have a lot to lose, but with your name on the vehicle and insurance policy it would open up the possibility to go after the deeper pockets. With equity in your home, vehicles and other valuable property you would make a much more attractive target.

I tried to help out my oldest son, giving him advantages that I never had as a kid. I kept him on my insurance policy into his early twenties. I had co-signed for his truck and kept him on partly to protect myself. He repaid me by drinking and having a couple accidents that more than doubled his rate, then I had to track him down every month to get his insurance payment if I even could. His one vehicle cost more to insure than all 3 of mine. He hit a patch of ice and totaled his truck and nearly got my whole policy cancelled. I took the check, paid off the truck and took him off my policy.

He's was great when he was a kid and we had few if any problems with him all the way through high school; But young adults sometimes don't make very wise decisions. Now he pays for them himself and unfortunately for them so will his younger brothers.

[Bo]

Thanks for all the input everyone! I think my underlying concern here (beyond the well being of any drivers well being) is the liability in the bigger sense. I would hate to have everything my wife and I have worked so hard for put at risk because of the unlikely (but real) possibility that my stepdaughter were to make a driving mistake and really damage something or, far worse, injure someone.

It seems like getting both the license and tile in her name is really the wisest route here and to help her cover the financial difference.

Thanks again all!

-Bo