How We Research and Verify

Where the numbers come from

We start with the people who regulate insurance and the organizations that measure it, and we go to the original document whenever one exists. The sources we rely on most:

State insurance departments. The final word on what each state requires. Minimum limits, no-fault rules, and required coverages come from the state's own department of insurance or its statutes.
The National Association of Insurance Commissioners (NAIC). Average premiums and expenditures by state, from its annual Auto Insurance Database Report.
The Insurance Research Council (IRC). Uninsured-driver estimates and research on claims and costs.
The Insurance Information Institute (III). Industry data and consumer explainers on how coverages work.
The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS). The Consumer Price Index, including motor vehicle insurance and medical care, for how costs are moving.

Insurers' own consumer guides and reputable trade press fill in how a coverage works in practice. When a number in an article could be read more than one way, we say which measure it is and who published it. Every blog article ends with a list of the sources it used.

What "Last verified" means

Articles and the state chart carry a Last verified date. It is the date we last checked that page's numbers and rules against its listed sources. It is not just the date someone fixed a typo.

We review every article, the state minimums chart, and the Decoded guides at least once a year, because insurance rules, average premiums, and state requirements change every year. A page also gets rechecked sooner when one of its sources publishes new data or a state changes its law.

How the state minimums chart is maintained

The state minimums chart lists the required liability limits and related coverages for all 50 states and D.C. Each row is checked against that state's insurance department, with the NAIC and III used to cross-check. When a state raises its minimums, we update that row and the chart's Last verified date.

The chart is a summary. Your state's statutes and your insurance department have the final say, and your own policy governs your coverage. If you are about to make a decision, confirm the current requirement with your state insurance department.

How the Dec Page Analyzer handles your document

The Dec Page Analyzer uses an AI model to read your declarations page and write a plain-English report. Here is what happens to the file, in the same terms as our privacy policy:

Your Dec page is processed to generate your analysis and is not retained afterward.
Names, addresses, policy numbers, and VINs are removed before the analysis step.
The only thing we keep from a report is a few anonymized coverage numbers (state, policy type, limits, deductibles, number of vehicles, policy term) for aggregate statistics. They are never tied to your email address.
The AI provider's terms prohibit training on submitted content. We do not build profiles from Dec pages, sell them, or share them with anyone.

The report compares your limits with your state's minimum from the same data as the state chart. It is educational, not advice: it explains what you have and lists questions to ask a licensed agent.

Independence

We sell books, not policies. PolicyLector is not a licensed agent or broker and is independent of every insurer. We do not sell policies, we do not sell leads, we take no referral fees, and we never sell client data. Readers pay for the Decoded books; agents can pay a flat fee to offer the analyzer to their clients. Nobody pays us to recommend a carrier, and the analyzer never names one to switch to.

Corrections

If you find something wrong, out of date, or unclear, tell us through the contact form. Include the page and, if you have one, the source that shows the correct figure. When we confirm an error, we fix the page and update its Last verified date.

More about who we are and why we do this: About PolicyLector.