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Insurance Tips for Newlyweds

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min read

Updated: 30 September 2023

Written by
Insuranceopedia Staff

Reviewed by
Darrel Pendry

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Key Takeaways

Top insurance tips for newlyweds include buying insurance for the big day and your big ticket items and updating your policies and beneficiaries.

Ah, love! Can you feel it in the air? Doesn’t it just make you feel like…it’s time to look at your insurance policy? Okay, maybe not.

In the process of getting married, there is a lot to think about—the venue, the dress, the food, the guest list. We could go on. Insurance may not be at the top of your list, but there are some things to consider about how your insurance will change when you get married to make sure you and your new family have a protected financial future.

After You Pop the Question

We’re so happy for you! Congratulations on your engagement! As you start to plan your wedding you may be thinking about cake toppers, table settings, and picking out who will be in your wedding party, but here are a few insurance-related items to add to your to-do list before your big day!

Scheduled Item insurance

Your personal property insurance protects your belongings up to a certain dollar amount, but your insurance policy may have a limit of how much the company will pay out for jewelry (this can range from $500-$5000). The standard property insurance policy also may not cover the ring for theft or mysterious disappearance.

If the price of the engagement ring or wedding ring exceeds that limit cap on your policy, you may consider scheduling it as a separate item. This is sometimes called “adding a floater” to the policy. When you schedule an item separately, the insurance company will insure the ring to its actual value. This will require an official appraisal (not the sales receipt), so you can prove the worth of the piece and make sure it’s insured properly.

Event Insurance

It’s common practice for venues to ask you to purchase event insurance when you put a deposit down to save your spot for your special day. Event insurance is a liability policy that protects you in the case that one of your guests gets a little bit too rowdy at the open bar and ends up damaging property or others. These types of policies can range from around $75-$200 depending on the number of guests, the length of the event, and special activities that may increase the risk of liability (live performances, displays, etc.).

Often insurance companies will have separate individual policies for wedding liability or they may have whole wedding packages that include insurance for your deposits, wedding presents floaters, and coverage décor for the wedding. Some also include cancellation insurance for the whole event if you’re worried about cold feet or something else preventing you from saying “I Do!”

Honeymoon Insurance (Travel Insurance)

Whether you’re taking a grand vacation on a sandy beach or sticking a little closer to home, you should always consider travel insurance. For those jet-setting to a sunny destination, you may consider full travel insurance packages that include trip cancellation or interruption, baggage insurance, and medical. If you’re staying in the country, but traveling to a different state or province, you should still consider purchasing travel medical insurance. When you’re traveling to different areas of the country or out of the country, your extended health benefits or mandated state/provincial health coverage may not reimburse you or your coverage may be limited.

We don’t like to think that you would need it while on your honeymoon, but you will be sure glad to have it if you do. Something as simple as cutting your hand open on broken glass could cost you hundreds in an emergency room if you’re out of the country.

Once You’ve Tied the Knot

All the planning, all the anticipation—you did it! Once the excitement has died down and the party has been cleaned up, you can settle into married life. Have you told your insurance broker about the news?

When you give them a call, after the congratulations, they should have a few changes to make to your policy.

Life Insurance

If you don’t already have life insurance, now is a great time to purchase a policy. In fact, any time is a great time to buy a life insurance policy because the older you get the more difficult and more expensive it is to purchase. It’s not something you want to procrastinate. Life insurance protects your loved ones after you pass on by providing them a payout to cover your debts, funeral expenses, and money to look after themselves. To help you get started, here’s a quick overview of the best life insurance providers across the US states:

Adding Your Spouse Your Policy

When you get married and start combining your belongings, you may consider combining your home and auto insurance policies as well! Often companies will have discounts for adding more than one vehicle to a policy or they may have multi-product discounts.

If one partner has an occupational discount, they may be able to extend that to the household as well. Additionally, if your partner has a better credit score than you, you might be able to use theirs to get a better premium.

However, insurance companies may not allow you to combine your policies if you do not have a common interest (for example, you both are on title for your house or you are both on the bill of sale for your vehicle). Always phone your broker to get a quote for this combined policy—they will know the specific requirements you need to get the best discount. Sometimes, it may even be better premium-wise to keep them separate. They will let you know!

If you already have policies in place, and you have recently added your loved one to the title or bill of sale of your property, they now have a financial interest in it and must be listed as a “Named Insured”. Saying “She’s my wife, so she owns the house too” won’t count as official documentation. You must provide title or ownership documentation that declares they’ve been included as an owner of these specific items, so your insurance advisor can update your policy.

If you already have life insurance in place, you may consider updating your beneficiary list to include your new partner—especially if you haven’t updated your list in a while and it still states your old partner’s information.

Other Minor Adjustments

Some other changes you may need to make on your insurance policies include adjusting your annual kilometers on your auto insurance policy, changing your marital status from single to married (some companies offer discounts for this), and updating your amount of contents insurance.

Moving to a new house is a great opportunity to take inventory of all of your property to make sure you are both adequately insured. Once you’ve taken a tally of the total value of your combined property, make sure to call your insurance broker to update them.

We’re so happy you found someone you care so deeply about, and we want to make sure you and your loved ones are protected. Insurance is the best way to make sure they are set up for the future and protected from financial loss.

We understand that updating your insurance policy is a special kind of love language, but as you’ll come to find with married life—it’s the little things that matter most.