There is no Massachusetts uninsured vehicle fund; the protection is built into your own policy.

There is no separate cash fund; the protection lives inside your own policy

Search results calling this “the Massachusetts uninsured vehicle fund” are pointing at something that does not exist as a standalone claims office. Massachusetts requires every registered vehicle to carry four Compulsory Coverages, and one of them, Bodily Injury Caused by Uninsured Auto, is written directly into your auto policy rather than paid out of a state account. That compulsory coverage protects you, anyone you let drive your car, and household members and passengers against losses caused by an uninsured or unidentified hit-and-run driver.

The legal basis is G.L. c.175 §113L, which bars any auto liability policy from being issued in Massachusetts unless it includes coverage for people legally entitled to recover damages from owners or operators of uninsured or hit-and-run vehicles. The same section extends that protection one step further: it also responds if the at-fault driver’s own insurer is unable to pay because of insolvency. Uninsured motorist coverage does double duty, covering both drivers who never bought insurance and drivers whose insurer collapsed before paying a legitimate claim.

One limit worth knowing before you ever need it: §113L bars stacking. You cannot add together the limits of two or more vehicles or two or more policies to inflate what you recover. Whatever the applicable policy’s uninsured motorist limit is, that’s the ceiling. For more on how that coverage part actually pays, see the guide on uninsured and underinsured motorist coverage in Massachusetts (/guides/massachusetts-uninsured-underinsured-motorist/).

The current compulsory minimums, and what changed on July 1, 2025

For policies issued or renewed on or after July 1, 2025, Massachusetts increased its compulsory minimums under St. 2024, c.275. The Division of Insurance confirmed insurers had to raise Bodily Injury, Property Damage, Uninsured Motorist, and Underinsured Motorist limits to match the updated financial-responsibility law.

The current minimums, per Mass.gov’s Consumer Bill of Rights: Bodily Injury Caused by Uninsured Auto is 25/50, meaning $25,000 per person and $50,000 per accident. Property Damage is $30,000 per accident. PIP is $8,000 per person per accident. Medical payments coverage is at least $5,000. CAR’s 2026 residual-market manual confirms the same figures for Part 1 bodily injury liability and Part 3 uninsured auto bodily injury.

Before the change, the 2024 residual-market manual showed basic limits of $20,000 per person and $40,000 per accident, 20/40, so the increase to 25/50 is a real jump, not a rounding update. Optional underinsured motorist coverage under CAR Rule 36 carries the same 25/50 basic limits, with higher limits available; UIM limits can’t exceed the policy’s bodily injury liability limits. Drivers assigned through the MAIP can request higher optional limits, up to $250,000 per person and $500,000 per accident for the uninsured and underinsured motorist coverage parts. For every required coverage part in one place, see Massachusetts auto insurance requirements and laws (/guides/massachusetts-auto-insurance-requirements-and-laws/).

The Massachusetts Automobile Insurance Plan: the state’s assigned-risk pool

If no carrier will write you voluntarily, Massachusetts routes you into the Massachusetts Automobile Insurance Plan, MAIP. Mass.gov describes it plainly: it’s a way for drivers to get auto insurance if they can’t find a company willing to write them a policy, and it clarifies the MAIP itself is NOT an insurance company and cannot give you a premium quote. It’s a placement mechanism, not a carrier.

Nearly every company selling private passenger auto insurance in Massachusetts has to participate; each member company insures some drivers voluntarily and accepts others through MAIP assignment. The MAIP is administered by Commonwealth Automobile Reinsurers according to rules the Division of Insurance approves.

Two protections matter if you land here. First, the most you may pay is the MAIP rate, and the assigned company has to compare that rate against what it would charge voluntarily and use whichever is less. Second, the agent who submitted your application keeps servicing the policy no matter which company gets assigned, so being placed in the pool doesn’t mean losing your agent. The law-library page calls MAIP by its informal name too: the Assigned Risk Pool.

Commonwealth Automobile Reinsurers: the mechanism behind the residual market

CAR is the entity that actually runs the machinery behind MAIP. Created under G.L. c.175 §113H, CAR is the industry-operated residual market and statistical agent for motor vehicle insurance in the Commonwealth. Its job is to provide access to private passenger and commercial auto liability and physical damage coverage for the segment of drivers who can’t get it voluntarily.

Membership isn’t optional for insurers: every company licensed to write motor vehicle insurance in Massachusetts must join CAR, and licensing to sell private passenger auto here includes CAR membership as a mandatory checklist item. Membership makes a company eligible for appointment as an Assigned Risk Company under MAIP.

CAR also carries ongoing regulatory obligations around claims quality. Under a Division of Insurance order, CAR must file performance standards for claims handling by servicing carriers at least once every two years, standards designed to ensure the speedy settlement of valid claims at the lowest reasonable cost and the denial of fraudulent or otherwise invalid claims. That’s the layer that keeps assigned-risk claims handling from becoming a black box.

What happens if your own insurer goes insolvent: the Massachusetts Insurers Insolvency Fund

A different backstop exists for a different problem: not an uninsured driver, but an insurer that fails outright. New companies licensed to sell private passenger auto coverage in Massachusetts must join the Massachusetts Insurers Insolvency Fund, MIIF, as part of the state licensing process. If your insurer, or the at-fault driver’s insurer, becomes insolvent, MIIF pays up to $300,000 per claim arising from a policy issued by that insolvent insurer. The fund’s obligations are met through mandatory contributions from every liability and property insurer licensed in the state, and the Division of Insurance separately coordinates the takeover, liquidation, or rehabilitation of troubled companies so claimants aren’t left stranded mid-claim.

That MIIF backstop is distinct from the uninsured motorist coverage baked into your policy under §113L, which also reaches insolvency situations from a different angle: your own uninsured motorist coverage can step in if the at-fault driver’s insurer can’t pay because of insolvency, and your insurer’s subrogation rights then extend to the proceeds recoverable from the assets of the insolvent insurer.

How Massachusetts catches and punishes uninsured driving

The system above only works because Massachusetts tracks who’s actually covered. The RMV’s Insurance Policy Management program, formerly the Uninsured Motorist System, is built into the RMV’s ATLAS platform and requires insurers to report new policies within twenty-three days of the effective date.

Get caught driving uninsured and G.L. c.90 §34J applies: a fine of not less than five hundred dollars nor more than five thousand dollars, or imprisonment for not more than one year in a house of correction, or both. Beyond the criminal penalty, a conviction or guilty plea also makes the driver liable to the residual-market plan set up under §113H, the same CAR/MAIP mechanism described above, for the greater of five hundred dollars or a year’s compulsory-insurance premium at the highest rated territory and class. That payment goes into the system, not to the crash victim. A first conviction triggers a license suspension of sixty days; any second or subsequent conviction or guilty plea within a six-year period triggers a one-year suspension. In court, an RMV certification that it has no record of a liability policy, bond, or deposit for the vehicle creates a rebuttable presumption that none was in effect.

Filing a claim when the other driver is uninsured: the practical mechanics

None of this changes where you actually file a claim: with your own carrier, under your own uninsured motorist coverage, not with a state office. If a household member without their own policy is hurt, recovery is limited to the policy of a resident relative providing the highest limits of that coverage, so who in the household holds what limits actually matters.

There’s a precondition worth knowing before a claim ever happens: an insured occupying a vehicle they own that lacks the required §34A coverage may not recover uninsured motorist benefits from any policy. Carrying your own compulsory coverage isn’t just a legal requirement, it’s what makes the uninsured-motorist protection available to you at all. Once a claim pays out, your insurer’s subrogation rights against the at-fault party only kick in after you’ve received full compensation for your injuries.

If you can’t find a voluntary market willing to write you, that isn’t a reason to go without coverage; any agent licensed to sell auto insurance in Massachusetts can submit a MAIP application on your behalf, which is a materially different position than being uninsured and exposed to §34J penalties. For claim-specific guidance when the other driver actually fled the scene, see the guide on hit-and-run accidents in Massachusetts (/guides/massachusetts-hit-and-run-accident-insurance-claim/). Reviewing your own limits before you need them, particularly whether your uninsured and underinsured motorist limits exceed the 25/50 minimum, is worth doing at your next renewal (/personal/auto/).