There’s a lot of work to planning a wedding, and everyone wants it to go flawlessly so they and their guests can relax and enjoy themselves. With so many moving parts, though, there’s a lot that can go wrong. Fortunately, different types of wedding insurance can help protect the investment you’ve made in the day … and in your future.
In addition to wedding insurance, it’s important to make sure that your irreplaceable wedding jewellery is properly covered. As well, once you’ve tied the knot and after you return home from your honeymoon, give your insurance broker a call to make the necessary adjustments and start the next phase of your life off right.
Wedding Insurance for Your Big Day
Different types of wedding insurance available include:
- Commercial general liability insurance will cover you if anyone is injured, becomes ill, or causes property damage at any of your wedding events. Additional liability coverage includes party alcohol liability and liquor liability.
- Wedding cancellation insurance can help recoup losses from deposits or purchases made if your wedding is suddenly cancelled through no fault of your own.
- Wedding photos and video coverage will provide the resources necessary to re-take photos if your photographer falls ill or doesn’t show up.
- Your wedding and bridesmaid dresses can be covered for loss or damage by bridal attire insurance.
- Wedding presents are purchased by friends and loved ones as a way to wish you well on your journey as a married couple. There can be a lot of value in your gifts (both emotional and financial), making wedding present insurance for loss or physical damage a smart idea – especially if you have to transport your gifts from one location to another.
Travel insurance can include trip cancellation insurance for if you suddenly can’t go on your honeymoon as planned. Other travel insurance options include coverage for lost or delayed baggage, medical coverage if you are leaving the country and fall ill or get hurt, and rental car damage waivers.
Protecting Your Wedding Rings
If there is one thing that should be at the top of the wedding to-do list, it should be purchasing wedding and engagement ring insurance. Unfortunately, many believe their rings will be covered under their existing home insurance policy, which isn’t always the case.
Home insurance policies cover the loss or damage of your personal belongings and jewellery, but coverage is usually limited to a dollar value of $2000, less your deductible. Jewellery is subject to special limits, which means expensive items like engagement and wedding rings need to be scheduled.
Scheduling your engagement ring will require you to have your ring officially appraised, and then submit that appraisal to your insurance company. Your insurance company will then add your ring to a “schedule,” which will ensure proper coverage in the event that you lose your ring.
Coverage for Couples
Financial planners stress the importance of reviewing your personal situation whenever you are faced with a major change in life, such as getting married, having a baby, or retiring. However, many people limit their evaluations purely to their finances – looking mainly at things like savings, debt loads, RRSP contributions and investments. Insurance often gets overlooked, but it shouldn’t.
Here’s what you should consider as you settle in to married life:
Life insurance: Life insurance provides vital protections that ensure you will never leave your loved ones and dependents scrambling to meet their financial obligations if something should happen to you. Newlyweds are strongly encouraged to purchase life insurance. The younger you are when you buy life insurance, the lower your premiums will be, and permanent life insurance provides a guaranteed return on your investment.
Home insurance: An obvious benefit to getting married is that cohabitation means you only have to cover a single house instead of two separate dwellings. In addition to combining your home insurance, you and your spouse can also merge your property insurance coverage into a single policy, which protects your personal belongings from theft and damage caused by incidents like fire or vandalism.
Auto insurance: While each individual driver will need separate auto insurance for their Calgary vehicles, the benefit of being married is that most insurance companies will offer you reduced insurance rates if you already hold other policies. Thus, by choosing the same company for your life insurance and home insurance needs, you can take advantage of built-in savings on both basic and comprehensive vehicle coverage packages.
Trust Lane’s Insurance With all of Your Coverage Needs
Lane’s experienced insurance brokers provide unmatched benefits and diverse insurance options to our clients. Contact our experienced teams in Calgary, Banff, Edmonton and the rest of Alberta for answers to your insurance questions.
