Does wedding insurance cover the engagement ring?  

Before we answer whether engagement ring insurance is part of wedding insurance, bear with us and let us guess how he popped the question.

Did he take you to a fancy restaurant, and an engagement ring was at the bottom of the champagne flute as you sipped champagne?

Even better, you took a bite of chocolate mud cake – your favourite as he well knows – and then you bit into your engagement ring.

Neither of these scenarios?

Then it was definitely on the big screen!

You’ve accompanied him for years to his favourite AFL team home games.

The cameras turn on you. There, you two lovebirds on the big screen, and he drops on one knee. 25,000 people roar, and how can you say no?! He puts the engagement ring on your finger, and the crowd goes nuts.

We love it, though he didn’t propose in such a manner; it must have been on vacation.

Popping the question and opening the engagement ring box on vacation is a no-brainer.

It could be a tropical beach. It should be Paris.

We would be disappointed if this wasn’t your engagement experience, except for one more scenario, which pips even the Eifel Tower on a warm spring evening.

He proposed to you on Valentine’s Day! It is, after all, the most romantic day of the year.

Engagement ring in the roses, violins in the background, floating on a gondola down the Gold Coast waterways.

This HAS to be how he proposed to you: we’ll accept nothing less.

Unless he took you to a fancy restaurant overlooking the field of his favourite sporting team in Rome on Valentine’s Day.

Because you know you’ve got yourself a keeper if that was the case.

Best you don’t lose that engagement ring then!

What is engagement ring insurance, and do you need it?

In simple terms, engagement ring insurance covers damage, loss or theft of your engagement ring.

Though that’s where it stops being so straightforward.

There are different ways to insure your engagement ring, depending on what you are looking to cover and when.

And reading this, it’s important to discern between engagement and wedding rings (wedding bands).

Let’s get into the details to determine what might or might not work for your needs. Remember, our advice here is general, and you should thoroughly research the different policies you are considering to ensure they meet your needs.

Dedicated/specialised engagement ring insurance

In the same way that wedding insurance is a more niche form of insurance than, say, car insurance, there are dedicated insurers that only cover engagement rings.

Well, they cover all the jewellery you might want to insure, though jewellery is all they insure.

Watches, necklaces, tiaras, and engagement rings.

Such specialised jewellers offer several benefits, especially when compared to home and contents insurance, which we’ll discuss next.

Though you’re paying a handsome premium for the specialised insurance.

Every specialised jewellery insurer will be different, though typically, the headline benefits of specialised jewellery insurance are:

• The coverage around loss, theft, or damage is excellent compared to home and contents insurance, which typically offers much narrower coverage.
• The coverage is worldwide, not only in Australia, a typical home and contents insurance limitation.
• The coverage is for an agreed value, with like-for-like replacement where possible, at a jeweller of your choice, often with provisions to protect you against price increases over time.

This is amazing and something you might consider if your engagement ring (or wedding band) is costly, rare, meaningful or if its loss or damage would turn your life upside down.

As we said, however, you’ll pay a pretty penny for the insurance, so you’ll want to keep that in mind.

Engagement ring insurance through home and contents insurance

If you have home and contents insurance (or just contents insurance), your engagement ring is probably covered under your policy.

This is especially true if you specifically identify it and its value under your policy, which is quite common for home and contents insurance policies.

But… the devil is in the details, and in the same way that you have specialised insurance companies insuring nothing but jewellery, home, and contents is a broad, catch-all form of insurance with few specialisations.

Though typically, there are plenty of limitations.

By default, home and contents will cover your personal effects (such as an engagement ring) for, most likely, much less than was paid for the engagement ring: e.g. $1,000.00.

The coverage is, by default, onerous.

If the engagement ring left your house, it isn’t covered.

It isn’t covered if the engagement ring was off your finger or not in a safe.

You can tick a few boxes and make the coverage a bit more generous, though you’re paying for the privilege – and we did say “a bit more generous.”

You know, like, don’t take your ring on holidays!

Home and contents insurance is usually excellent for house damage (e.g. a fire) or content theft.

However, suppose you have ever tried to claim a replacement laptop under your home and contents policy: in that case, you’d know that home and content policies don’t like specific items and details, and have enough exclusions to make you pull out your hair.

If your engagement ring is meaningful to you, home and contents insurance might not cover it to the extent you want.

Especially if you plan to take your engagement ring on your honeymoon, something most of us would take for granted, right?

Wedding insurance and what is covered when it comes to engagement rings and wedding rings

Wedding insurance is all about the special day and the days leading up to it.

Wedding insurance through Wedsure covers the wedding rings (wedding bands) for loss, theft, or damage seven days before the wedding and then on the big day itself.

We do this because we know all the cliché stories about wedding rings going missing, lost in transit, lost as part of a joke by the best man.

Because when the ring is not on the finger, rings can tend to walk.

Wedsure covers wedding rings up to $20,000 as long as they are in possession of the bride, groom, a member of the bridal party, or an immediate family member.

(Ask the best man to park whatever joke they might have planned about missing rings!)

Wedding insurance does not cover loss, theft or damage to engagement rings.

Because engagement rings are not about the big day. By now, they’re firmly on the finger and safe from best-men jokes!

Which insurance is right for you?

As we mentioned, insurance for your engagement ring – or wedding ring – is about what you want insured and when you want it insured.

At Wedsure, we don’t specialise in the long-term insurance of valuables. We do not cover engagement ring insurance of any kind.

Other insurers can do this.

We are more about the risks on the big day.

Together with the many other scenarios covered by our wedding insurance, such as wedding rescheduling, wedding supplier failure and lost wedding gifts, we believe wedding insurance offers great value and coverage for the many things that could go wrong leading up to and on your wedding day.

In selecting any insurance or wedding insurance product and policy, understand your needs, carefully understand what is covered and get the peace of mind you need.