Insurance is a contract between the insurer and the personinsured.
Insurance companies sell to the insured the coverage requested:Carriers have no obligation to force, or even advise, the insuredabout the limits of liability of automobile liability insurancethat should be carried by the insured. Rather, the insurer isobligated only to provide the insurance coverages ordered, as someinsureds found out when they tried to convince a court to provideliability limits that were not ordered because they believed, aslongtime customers, they should have been advised to carry higherlimits.
Case background
In 1984, while he was a captain in the U.S. Army, Charles Cohanpurchased an automobile insurance policy from USAA with a $100,000per-person liability limit. He maintained the policy with the samecoverage limits through 2011. He married Lisa Cohan in 1995 andadded her to the auto policy as an "operator." The Cohans neveradvised USAA that they should increase their automobile liability coverage.
In 2002, the Cohans purchased land and built a new home. On Dec.6, 2002, they purchased homeowner's insurance from USAA withliability coverage in the amount of $1 million per occurrence.
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