Does New York Allow UM/SUM Stacking? What Insurance Law 3420(f) Says

By the FigureMyTax Editorial Team · How we calculate

New York's statute neither permits nor bars stacking. It requires basic uninsured motorist coverage and makes supplementary underinsured coverage (SUM) optional, and your policy language, applied by the courts, decides whether limits add up.

Required UM

Insurance Law 3420(f)(1) says every auto liability policy delivered for a vehicle principally garaged in New York must pay up to $25,000 for injury and $50,000 for death of one person, and $50,000 and $100,000 for more than one person, from an uninsured, unidentified hit-and-run, insurer-denied, stolen or unregistered vehicle, for accidents in New York. No payment for non-economic loss is made unless you have a serious injury as defined in section 5102, and the coverage does not duplicate no-fault basic economic loss.

Optional SUM

Paragraph (2)(A) says the policy must also, at the insured's option, provide SUM up to the bodily injury liability limits, with maximums of $250,000 per person and $500,000 per accident or a $500,000 combined single limit. An insurer may instead offer up to $100,000 and $300,000 if it also offers an umbrella policy with SUM. SUM applies when the other vehicle's bodily injury limits are less than yours, and the other limits must first be exhausted by payment of judgments or settlements.

A provision we could not rely on

A paragraph (2-a) in the text we read would have made SUM available at your liability limits unless waived in writing for new policies, but it says it expires June 30, 2026. We could not confirm whether it was extended, so we do not rely on it. Ask your insurer what your policy provides.

What it leaves open

Nothing in the section bars or allows adding limits. Court decisions we read enforced policy clauses that limit recovery under more than one policy to the highest limit; see the stacked versus single-limit explainer. Ask an attorney how they apply.

How to use this

Compare the results in the New York UM/SUM stacking calculator and read how UM and SUM work in New York.

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