We recently received a question from a subscriber regarding a policy for an insured who moved coverage from a claims-made basis to an occurrence form. Under the claims-made policy the insured had a retroactive date going back to 2002, but the occurrence policy, while referencing a retroactive date of coverage, showed the same retroactive date on the declarations as the policy effective date, 4/18/2022.

So what happens when an insured decides to move from a claims-made policy to an occurrence based policy, or vice versa? How does this affect claims under each coverage form and how might the agent's errors and omissions be triggered?

First, we need to understand the difference between claims-made coverage and occurrence coverage. Stated simplistically, claims-made coverage provides coverage for claims that are made to the insurer during the policy term, for injuries, wrongful acts, errors or omissions, or whatever the coverage applies to (we'll refer to these as injury)—as long as such injury was not committed prior to the retroactive date shown on the policy. Conversely, an occurrence policy covers claims that occur during the policy term and there is no need for a retroactive date, since the date of the occurrence is what triggers the coverage.