The difference between UM and UIM
- Uninsured motorist (UM): pays for your injuries when the at-fault driver has no insurance — or in a hit-and-run where the driver is never found.
- Underinsured motorist (UIM): pays when the at-fault driver has some insurance, but not enough to cover your injuries.
Minnesota requires both, with minimum limits of $25,000 per person / $50,000 per accident. As with liability, those minimums are a floor, not a target.
How Minnesota UIM works
Minnesota generally uses a "difference in limits" approach. Your UIM pays the gap between the at-fault driver's liability limit and your own UIM limit — not the full UIM amount on top of what they paid.
Example: the at-fault driver carries $30,000 and you carry $100,000 of UIM. If your damages are $100,000, you collect $30,000 from their liability and up to $70,000 from your UIM — the difference between the two limits.
Stacking UM/UIM in Minnesota
"Stacking" means combining the UM/UIM limits across multiple vehicles to increase the amount available for a single claim. Minnesota allows inter-policy stacking in certain situations — most commonly when you're injured in a vehicle you don't own and you have your own UM/UIM coverage to add on top.
- If you're hurt in your own insured vehicle, you generally recover under that vehicle's UM/UIM limits.
- If you're hurt as a pedestrian, passenger, or in a vehicle you don't own, you may be able to access your own policy's UM/UIM in addition to the other available coverage.
How much UM/UIM should you carry?
A simple rule: match your UM/UIM to your liability limits. It's inconsistent (and risky) to protect other people with $300,000 of liability while protecting yourself with only $25,000 of UIM. Our free calculators can help you size your coverage.