diff --git a/lib/relation-definition.js b/lib/relation-definition.js
index 072f9743..2590a3a5 100644
--- a/lib/relation-definition.js
+++ b/lib/relation-definition.js
@@ -2020,7 +2020,12 @@ EmbedsMany.prototype.prepareEmbeddedInstance = function(inst) {
     var self = this;
     var propertyName = this.definition.keyFrom;
     var modelInstance = this.modelInstance;
-    inst.__persisted = true;
+    if (this.definition.options.persistent) {
+        var pk = this.definition.keyTo;
+        inst.__persisted = !!inst[pk];
+    } else {
+        inst.__persisted = true;
+    }
     inst.triggerParent = function(actionName, callback) {
       if (actionName === 'save' || actionName === 'destroy') {
         var embeddedList = self.embeddedList();