Does Maine Allow UM/UIM Stacking? What Section 2902 Says

By the FigureMyTax Editorial Team · How we calculate

Maine's statute requires uninsured vehicle coverage, defines an underinsured vehicle and sets how underinsured coverage is calculated. It neither permits nor bars stacking.

The coverage and the definition

Section 2902(1) says a liability policy for a Maine vehicle may not be issued unless it provides coverage for people legally entitled to recover from owners or operators of uninsured, underinsured or hit-and-run vehicles. An underinsured vehicle is one with coverage in amounts less than the minimum bodily injury limits under the financial responsibility laws, or less than the limits of the injured party's uninsured vehicle coverage.

Required limits and the rejection form

For policies subject to the Maine Automobile Insurance Cancellation Control Act, the coverage may not be less than the bodily injury liability limits of the policy unless the purchaser expressly rejects that amount, and never less than $50,000 per person and $100,000 per accident. The rejection must be on the insurer's form, signed by the purchaser and dated, with the statutory wording, and signed by any one named insured. After 2 consecutive years at the same limits with the same insurer, the insured is conclusively presumed to have accepted that amount.

How underinsured coverage is calculated

For underinsured claims by two or more injured people, subsection (6) subtracts payments actually made to each person from the at-fault driver's bodily injury coverage from the underinsured coverage limit that applies to that person, with a per-accident cap when the policy has only a single limit, and reduces it further by any unpaid balance of the at-fault driver's coverage.

What it leaves open

Nothing in section 2902 says whether limits on several policies add up or what an anti-stacking clause may do. We did not find a controlling Maine decision we could read. Ask an attorney before assuming your limits add up or do not.

How to use this

Compare the single-limit and combined results in the Maine UM/UIM stacking calculator, start with the plain-English stacked versus single-limit explainer, and read how Maine's uninsured vehicle coverage works.

This is general information, not legal advice, and the state comparisons above are illustrative, not an exhaustive survey. Confirm how Maine's rules apply to your specific case with a licensed Maine attorney.