Many people believe that after a proposal, the engagement ring is yours. WRONG. In Texas, engagement rings are “conditional gifts.” This means that if you don’t actually get married and the engagement is broken off, the ring goes back to the person who purchased it. This makes sense because an engagement ring is seen as a promise to marry someone. Thus, if the promise of marriage isn’t fulfilled, then the person wearing the ring shouldn’t be able to keep it.
However, if you actually get married, then the engagement ring is the separate property of the person it was gifted to (absent a different agreement between the parties). Separate property is defined as anything that was owned prior to marriage, gifted during the marriage, or inherited during the marriage. Thus, once you marry the person who gave you the ring, you have fulfilled your promise to marry and it is your separate property.
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