The full extent of the losses were not actually absorbed by the White Star line, because both vessels were insured.

The Titanic, which had cost £1.5 million to build, had been insured at Lloyd's of London by a consortium that included the Prudential Insurance Company and the Atlantic Mutual Insurance Company for a sum totalling about £3.1 million (the hull alone was insured for in excess of £1 million). Thanks to the ships' reputation for being extremely well-built, the premium paid for this had been only £7,500 – and the insurers paid out in full within 30 days, having deducted an £800,000 excess. White Star thus received around £2.3 million for the ship's loss, which it seems likely did cover not only the cost of the hull, but also the associated equipment, fixtures and fittings.

This sum did not include the life insurance claims associated with the disaster, which cost the Prudential alone an additional £14,239 in payments on the deaths of 324 of the ship's passengers. The largest amount paid out on the life of a Titanic passenger seems to have been the $146,750 (equivalent to $3.73 million today) paid to the heirs of Herbert F. Chaffee of North Dakota.

Much less information is available regarding the costs and the insurance cover placed on the Britannic, which was sunk by a mine while in the Mediterranean in 1916. However, she was covered under the War Risks Insurance Scheme put in place by the British government in August 1914 to ensure that shipping was not paralysed by the threat of attacks on commerce by surface raiders and submarines. Under this scheme, the government became the reinsurer of the last resort and offered up to 80% reinsurance for any British ship insured with a British underwriting group during the war.

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