Thoughts on USCCA and Similar Insurance

[Jasonanddeonna]

I am not sure if this is in the right topic or not, so please feel free to move. I do not have this insurance or any affiliation with this podcaster, but am curious as to what people think about what he has to say about it.

View: https://youtu.be/kzFOW4qjSYw?si=O7_9kVEtwuaSKQFG

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[SHPD_Retired]

I saw a video that talked about various companies that offer this insurance. The main takeaway from that video was that USCCA says in the policy that if you are charged with a crime they will not cover you. I thought that this is what you had the insurance for. The other companies that he compared USCCA with did not have this quirk of coverage in them.

 

[GrayGoose]

Waste of money.

 

[Mac45]

I saw a video that talked about various companies that offer this insurance. The main takeaway from that video was that USCCA says in the policy that if you are charged with a crime they will not cover you. I thought that this is what you had the insurance for. The other companies that he compared USCCA with did not have this quirk of coverage in them.

I have uscca and I'm looking into other types of insurance , any suggestions?

 

[lucusloc]

I saw a video that talked about various companies that offer this insurance. The main takeaway from that video was that USCCA says in the policy that if you are charged with a crime they will not cover you. I thought that this is what you had the insurance for. The other companies that he compared USCCA with did not have this quirk of coverage in them.

I thought this was an insurance thing, as in it is a law that insurance cannot cover a crime? That is why you need an "attorney retainer service" that covers your court costs, not an insurance policy. Attorneys are allowed to defend you when you are charged with a crime, and if you have a pre-arranged retainer that covers potential future court costs, well that is not "insurance" and therefor does not run afoul of any laws. The catch with those is you will need to retain attorneys that can practice in the jurisdiction in which you are charged, which is why it is better to sign up for a network rather than an individual attorney.

As with all things gun related this is way more complicated than it needs to be, intentionally so.

 

[billdeserthills]

I saw a video that talked about various companies that offer this insurance. The main takeaway from that video was that USCCA says in the policy that if you are charged with a crime they will not cover you. I thought that this is what you had the insurance for. The other companies that he compared USCCA with did not have this quirk of coverage in them.

All the policies allow the insurance company to drop you as a client at anytime

 

[lucusloc]

All the policies allow the insurance company to drop you as a client at anytime

Yes, but if your claim happened before they drop you (as in the incident itself, not when you filed) they are on the hook to pay out if it is covered. They can drop you after the fact, but they still have to pay coverage due. (yes, they will tell you they can drop you before you make the claim and that invalidates your coverage, but this is false. If the incident happened during the coverage period you can make a valid claim within the deadline period even if you are the one to cancel coverage immediately after the fact. If your policy was active at the time of the covered incident it is covered by that policy, full stop).

Of course you still will have to force them to pay, if you give them an out by not pursuing coverage they will take it, same as they will not pay for an incident they know about and know is covered if you do not file a claim. Sometimes this means taking them to court to force the issue. If you have to do that make sure they know you are going to attempt to recover legal fees. There are a lot of laws that cover this, and while the law is not perfect it does give people who are willing to spend the time enough of an edge to give slimy insurance companies pause.

 

[L84Cabo]

Just FYI...Here's a message from a month ago from the CEO of USCCA addressing some of this.


As for these types of policies in general, the question I would ask is what is the alternative? The legal aftermath of having to shoot someone is potentially EXTREMELY expensive. It is well beyond the financial resources of most people. So if you don't have legal insurance, what is your plan for covering these expenses? Will you tap your 401K and mortgage your house? Got a rich relative?

I personally don't think this type of insurance is much different from, say, car insurance. Most people carry car insurance because they can't afford to cover the aftermath of a car accident. I tend to think most of the bigger companies in the legal defense market are generally as reputable as the bigger car insurance companies. And there are certainly some problems with the car insurance companies too.

I'm sure you can find instances where, say, USCCA declined someone's claim. But these seem to be the exception and not the rule. There seems to be plenty of people who have been covered by USCCA and are happy with them. But there does seem to be more variation in the legal defense market than the car insurance market. Each of the companies operate a bit differently so it's important to do your research and understand the key differences.

Note: I am NOT a USCCA member. I don't have a dog in this fight.

 

[lucusloc]

Just FYI...Here's a message from a month ago from the CEO of USCCA addressing some of this.


As for these types of policies in general, the question I would ask is what is the alternative? The legal aftermath of having to shoot someone is potentially EXTREMELY expensive. It is well beyond the financial resources of most people. So if you don't have legal insurance, what is your plan for covering these expenses? Will you tap your 401K and mortgage your house? Got a rich relative?

I personally don't think this type of insurance is much different from, say, car insurance. Most people carry car insurance because they can't afford to cover the aftermath of a car accident. I tend to think most of the bigger companies in the legal defense market are generally as reputable as the bigger car insurance companies. And there are certainly some problems with the car insurance companies too.

I'm sure you can find instances where, say, USCCA declined someone's claim. But these seem to be the exception and not the rule. There seems to be plenty of people who have been covered by USCCA and are happy with them. But there does seem to be more variation in the legal defense market than the car insurance market. Each of the companies operate a bit differently so it's important to do your research and understand the key differences.

Note: I am NOT a USCCA member. I don't have a dog in this fight.

A brutal reply to the above response video. I have to admit that I am not the most well versed on this issue, but man, the arguments we have seen here are pretty damning. Does USCCA have anything other than "we are looking into it"?

(also it looks like I was wrong and insurance can cover criminal legal fees? Is that just a state restriction in some places or am I completely misunderstanding how that all works? Who has the bat lawyer signal? )

Doh! forgot to link the reply video;

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TKCsj-XQOpE

 

[Nosferatu]

Most people carry car insurance because they can't afford to cover the aftermath of a car accident.

A nick to pick; but people carry car insurance because it's illegal not to in most states.

I don't believe USCCA and such are necessarily a waste of money, but I do believe you're better off putting whatever their monthly fee into an interest-bearing account that can be used for any kind of emergency, not just one that statistically is extremely unlikely to actually happen.

 

[lucusloc]

So I kinda answered my own questions from above, apparently Washington state (of course) was trying to (did?) outlaw self defense insurance. I am unclear if this is a thing in other states too, but I would guess it might be for the usual suspects. It seems there is probably enough info out there if I were to bother spending more than 5 min looking, and I may yet do that. Will post more here as I learn more (or someone more knowledgeable decides to come in and clarify things).

 

[SuperiorGlock]

I think insurance like this is kind of a scam, mind you I have done little research and this is purely an opinion. But if you get into a self defense situation and it's clean and legal you should be fine. I do know they dont cover you criminally. So I guess it boils down to the civil suit that will follow and how you want to handle that.

 

[L84Cabo]

A brutal reply to the above response video. I have to admit that I am not the most well versed on this issue, but man, the arguments we have seen here are pretty damning. Does USCCA have anything other than "we are looking into it"?

(also it looks like I was wrong and insurance can cover criminal legal fees? Is that just a state restriction in some places or am I completely misunderstanding how that all works? Who has the bat lawyer signal? )

Doh! forgot to link the reply video;

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TKCsj-XQOpE

Thanks for that video as I wasn't aware he had responded. What a mess this whole thing is.

 

[lucusloc]

Thanks for that video as I wasn't aware he had responded. What a mess this whole thing is.

Yep. I did not have a dog in this fight so I was curious how it was going to end. The USCCA response dis seem lackluster to me, and very much like they dropped the ball and had not figured that out yet, but this response, with some of the clarifications, really sealed the deal. USCCA screwed up, knows it, and is too cowardly to admit it. Screw them.

The comments from other customers on that video are gold too. Apparently USCCA has always been kinda scummy, and this time it just blew up in their face.

 

[dangerranger60]

All of the CCW insurance companies have to build in a way to get around the appearance that they are paying to help you cover up a crime.
USCCA does that by stating that if you are convicted of a crime they will bill back or claw back any moneys spent on your defense.
Pre Paid legal and Attorneys on retainer get around it by claiming they are not an insurance policy. But until very recently they were only able to operate in two states. They have not had any cases in CA or WA that prohibit CCW defense insurance yet. so they have no provable history. The Jury is still out on them.
Currently I am still of the opinion that I'm better off putting my premiums into a savings account. DR