Six Checks Worth Making After 55

The years after 55 change a household's driving more than its record. Commutes end, a second car slows down, and the policy often keeps describing the old routine. Work through these six checks once, then repeat the dated ones on schedule.

1. Claim the mature driver course reduction

Insurance Code section 11628.3 is unusually direct. Every admitted insurer must provide an appropriate percentage reduction in premium rates for motor vehicle liability insurance for principal operators who are 55 or older and produce proof of completing the mature driver improvement course approved by the DMV. The details that matter:

• Eligibility lasts three years from the date you complete the course, and you retake it every three years to keep it.
• The insurer reassesses the reduction at each renewal.
• It may discontinue the reduction if you are in an accident it finds you at fault for, or are convicted of a rules-of-the-road violation (parking violations aside) or an alcohol- or drug-related traffic offense.
• A course completed under a court order as traffic school does not earn the reduction, although you may also take the mature driver course separately.

The section says "admitted insurer," so if your policy is with a non-admitted company, ask how it treats the course.

2. One course per principal operator

The reduction is written for principal operators. In a two-car household where both partners are 55 or older and each is the main driver of a car, each person qualifies on their own course certificate. The section doesn't define "principal operator," so ask your company who it treats as the principal operator of each car before deciding who takes the course.

3. Re-estimate the mileage when the commute ends

Annual mileage is the second of California's three mandatory rating factors, and it is estimated for the next twelve months. Retirement is an obvious reason that estimate can go stale. Measure it again and report it; our page on correcting an overstated mileage figure shows how.

4. Update the use on each car

Type of use (pleasure, commute, business or farm) is an optional rating factor. A car that no longer commutes should not be classed as a commuter, and a car used for a new part-time job may need to be. Report the change either way.

5. Re-check what each car carries

A paid-off second car may no longer need collision; our page on dropping collision on an older car works through that decision. Liability is different. Limits protect what you own, and a household with a paid-off home and savings usually has more to protect than it did at thirty, not less.

6. Put the dates in a calendar

• The course completion date plus three years, so the reduction doesn't lapse unnoticed.
• Each renewal, when the reduction is reassessed.
• The date any ticket or at-fault accident passes three years, for the Good Driver test.

When the facts are updated, it is a good moment to see how other companies price them. Request a quote and mention your course certificate.