Q: Could we be held financially liable if our adult son is on our insurance policy?
We have a 19-year old son who has his own insurance on a paid off car that is titled to a trust that solely has the vehicle in the trust (vehicle trust). However, he lost his job is now not able to pay for insurance. We would like to know if we add our son to our insurance policy and the car remains titled in the trust, what is our liability if he gets into an accident? A majority of our liquids are not in a trust however are in a deposit account which is classified as "Tenancy By Entireity."
A: No, it is unlikely that you could be held liable for having him on your insurance. Liability normally results from negligent action on the part of a driver, not co-insured such as you would be.
A: It might be worthwhile to discuss this in detail with the estate planning attorney who created your trust, and your insurance agent. There's no predicting who a determined plaintiff would go after. Included in your discussion could be the element of how things are changed from the original situation of your son having his own policy, to now being on your policy - which at a casual observation, doesn't seem to do anything to enhance the protection of your assets - which is presumably the fundamental purpose of your plan. Good luck
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