The short answer: no — but the offer is compulsory
No. California does not require you to buy uninsured motorist (UM) cover or underinsured motorist (UIM) cover. No California law makes UM/UIM a condition of driving, registering a car, or holding a licence. That is the yes-or-no answer: no.
But the law does something almost as strong. Under California Insurance Code § 11580.2(a)(1), no bodily injury liability policy may be issued or delivered in California without UM cover attached to it, unless the named insured agrees in writing to delete it or to take lower limits. The state does not force you to buy the cover — it forces your insurer to sell it to you, and to keep it on your policy until you say in writing that you do not want it. The general guide to uninsured motorist cover on this site explains what UM and UIM pay in general; this page is about the California rule that puts the cover on your policy. Most California drivers who have UM cover never asked for it: it arrived with the policy, at limits matching their liability cover, and it stays there until something is signed to remove it.
What California does require: 30/60/15 liability
What California law does require is liability cover — the cover that pays other people when you cause a crash. Since January 1, 2025, the minimum limits are $30,000 for bodily injury to one person, $60,000 for bodily injury in one accident, and $15,000 for property damage — written as 30/60/15 — under Senate Bill 1107 (Vehicle Code § 16056), replacing the old 15/30/5 minimums, unchanged since 1967. The California Department of Insurance states these amounts as minimums, not as recommended cover.
The 30/60/15 figures describe what you must carry to pay others, not what you carry to protect yourself. Liability cover pays the other driver when the crash is your fault; it pays you nothing when the crash is someone else’s fault and that driver has no insurance. That gap is what UM cover fills: UM steps into the place of the at-fault driver’s liability cover, up to your own UM limits. So a driver at the legal minimum has $30,000 per person of liability cover for others, and — unless they signed the waiver — $30,000 per person of UM cover for themselves, because the UM offer must match the liability limits.
The 30/60/15 floor is already scheduled to rise again: on January 1, 2035, the minimums increase to $50,000 per person, $100,000 per accident and $25,000 property damage (50/100/25) under Vehicle Code § 16056(d) — that increase is already in the statute, not a proposal. The minimums are a legal floor, not a measure of what a serious crash costs.
The written waiver: how UM leaves your policy
UM cover leaves a California policy only by a written agreement. Under § 11580.2(a)(1), the insurer and the named insured may agree in writing, in the form the statute prescribes, to delete the UM provision completely, to delete it when the car is driven by a person named in the agreement, or to provide the cover at lower limits — but not below the financial responsibility limits in Vehicle Code § 16056. A verbal “no thanks” does not remove the cover: without a signed written waiver in the prescribed form, the cover is generally read into the policy by operation of law.
One more point: it is the named insured’s agreement that counts. If you drive a car insured in someone else’s name, the waiver is not yours to sign. If you are unsure whether a waiver is on your policy, ask your insurer in writing whether a § 11580.2 waiver is on file, when it was signed, and what limits it set.
UM and UIM: what each one pays
UM and UIM are offered together in California as a single cover option, but they pay in different situations. UM pays when the at-fault driver has no liability insurance at all, cannot be identified (the hit-and-run case below), or their insurer denies cover or becomes insolvent. UIM pays when the at-fault driver has insurance, but the limits are lower than your own UIM limits and lower than your losses. In both cases the cover pays for your bodily injury losses — the medical costs and related losses the at-fault driver’s liability cover would have paid if it had existed — up to your own UM/UIM limits. Damage to your car is a separate question, covered in the deductible-waiver section below.
UIM has a condition that catches people out: it applies only once the at-fault driver’s liability limits have been exhausted by judgments or settlements, under § 11580.2(p)(3). Exhaustion is a precondition, not a formality — settling with the at-fault driver for less than the full limit can end the UIM claim. And even when UIM does apply, it does not stack on top of the at-fault driver’s payment: under § 11580.2(p)(4) your UIM recovery is reduced dollar-for-dollar by what the at-fault driver’s insurer paid, so the total recovery is capped at your own UIM limits. Do not settle with an at-fault driver without first checking the effect on your UIM claim — and, as § 11580.2(c)(3) requires, without your insurer’s written consent, which a settlement without consent can void.
Hit-and-run crashes are treated as uninsured motorist claims, but with extra conditions. Under § 11580.2(b), the unidentified vehicle must actually have made physical contact with your vehicle or with you — a driver who swerves to avoid a car that never touches them generally does not qualify — the crash must be reported to the police within 24 hours, and a sworn statement must reach your insurer within 30 days. Report a hit-and-run to the police and to your insurer the same day if you possibly can.
The limits on offer: matching your liability limits
UM must be offered with limits equal to your bodily injury liability limits. If your liability limits are $100,000 per person and $300,000 per accident, your insurer must offer UM at $100,000/$300,000; if your liability limits are the 30/60/15 minimums, the UM offer is $30,000/$60,000. That matching rule is why the UM figure on your declarations page usually mirrors the liability figure above it — and why raising your liability limits normally raises the UM offer with it. Check the UM figure against your liability limits: a mismatch usually means a waiver was signed, and the waiver explains it.
There is one ceiling on that offer. Under § 11580.2(m), the insurer is not required to offer UM limits above $30,000 per person and $60,000 per accident. That is a ceiling on what the insurer must offer, not on what you can buy: an insurer may offer higher UM limits, but the statute does not force them to. If your liability limits are well above 30/60 and your UM limits stop at $30,000/$60,000, the gap is not necessarily a mistake.
The collision deductible waiver — and the $3,500 property-damage cover
UM bodily injury cover pays for your injuries, not for your car. Damage to your car after a crash with an uninsured driver is normally a collision claim, which normally leaves you paying your collision deductible. California law adds a separate protection for that deductible. Under Insurance Code § 11580.26(a)(1), insurers must offer a collision deductible waiver to policyholders who carry both collision cover and UM bodily injury cover: after a crash with an identified, uninsured, at-fault driver, the insurer pays the collision deductible that would otherwise come out of your pocket. The waiver is offered, not automatic — like UM itself, it can be declined in writing — so check whether it is on your policy.
Two limits on the waiver matter. First, it does not apply where the other driver is unidentified: under § 11580.26(b), payment under the waiver requires actual, direct physical contact between the vehicles and the other driver or vehicle to be identified, or identified by licence number. A hit-and-run by a driver you cannot identify is therefore outside the waiver, even though the same crash may still be a UM bodily injury claim under § 11580.2(b). Second, it does not apply to underinsured-driver crashes: the waiver is for collisions with an uninsured motor vehicle, not for a driver whose insurance simply runs out before your losses do.
There is a second, related cover for drivers who do not carry collision cover at all. Under § 11580.26(a)(2), where the policy has no collision cover, the insurer must offer property-damage cover for damage to your car caused by an uninsured driver — capped at the lesser of the car’s actual cash value or $3,500. That $3,500 figure belongs to this no-collision cover, not to the deductible waiver: the statute states no dollar cap for the waiver itself, and this page states none.
The two-year deadline — and arbitration
A UM claim in California does not stay open indefinitely. Under § 11580.2(i)(1), no UM claim accrues unless, within two years of the date of the accident, one of three things has happened: a suit for bodily injury has been filed against the uninsured motorist in a court of competent jurisdiction, an agreement as to the amount due under the policy has been concluded, or the insured has formally instituted arbitration proceedings by notifying the insurer in writing sent by certified mail, return receipt requested. Two years is the deadline for taking one of those three steps — not for finishing the claim. Notify your insurer promptly after any crash with an uninsured, underinsured or hit-and-run driver, and keep every document.
Most UM disputes in California are decided by arbitration rather than by a jury. Under § 11580.2, where the insurer and the insured cannot agree on the amount due, the dispute goes to a single neutral arbitrator, whose decision on entitlement and amount is binding between you and your insurer for the UM claim. Arbitration must be concluded within five years of being instituted, under § 11580.2(i)(2) — but that does not extend the two-year deadline for starting the process, which is the step most easily missed while medical treatment is still going on. Calendar the two-year date on the day of the crash.
Deciding whether to keep it
Because UM cover is not required, keeping it is a choice — but it should be made with the numbers in front of you, not by default. Start with your declarations page: confirm whether UM/UIM is listed, at what limits, whether the collision deductible waiver is listed, and whether any § 11580.2 waiver or lower-limits agreement is on file. If the page shows no UM cover, or UM limits below your liability limits, ask your insurer in writing whether a waiver is on file and when it was signed. Either answer may be a decision you made and forgot — either way, it is worth knowing before a crash.
The second step is to weigh what the cover protects against what it costs. No premium figure is stated on this page, because no verified California premium figure for UM cover is stated on the sources this site cites — and a national average would mislead, since premiums vary by driver, vehicle, area and insurer. The figure that matters is the one on your own quote: ask your insurer to state the UM/UIM premium separately, with the cover kept and with it removed, so the choice is priced rather than guessed. The guide to the cheapest car insurance by state explains how to compare quotes on identical cover.
The third step is to think about the gap the cover fills. Liability cover protects other people from you; collision cover protects your car; UM/UIM is the only cover on a standard California policy that protects you from a driver who has no insurance or not enough of it. Removing it saves the premium on that line, and leaves you relying on the at-fault driver having insurance — the one thing you cannot control, and the one thing the cover exists for. What matters is that the trade is made knowingly, in writing, and with the limits on your declarations page in front of you.
Worked example
Consider one ILLUSTRATIVE driver, using only the statutory limits on this page — not a quote, and not a typical case: a California driver who carries the minimum 30/60/15 liability limits and has kept the UM cover offered at the same limits, so the UM limits are $30,000 per person and $60,000 per accident. An uninsured driver hits them, and they are injured. Their UM cover steps in, up to $30,000 for one person’s injuries and $60,000 for all injuries in that accident. Change one fact: the at-fault driver has insurance, at the same $30,000 per person minimum, and the losses exceed it. That $30,000 must first be exhausted by settlement or judgment before UIM can apply, and the UIM recovery is then reduced dollar-for-dollar by that $30,000 — so with UIM limits of $30,000 per person, the UIM layer adds nothing, and the total recovery is capped at $30,000. These are ILLUSTRATIVE figures drawn only from the statutory minimums on this page; they predict no real driver’s recovery.
Illustrative example only — not a fact about any real policy.