Exclusions are policy provisions that eliminate or restrict coverage for specific claims or losses. Their purpose is to clarify the grant of coverage.

Theoretically, a policy could be drafted without any exclusions, perfectly expressing the insurer's intent of coverage so that it could be interpreted in no other way. Such a policy has yet to be developed and probably never will be. In fact, all D&O policies contain many often convoluted and ambiguous exclusions as well as exceptions to exclusions, and exceptions to exceptions to exclusions.
This section  contains discussions of some of the most common exclusions found in the "Exclusions" section of the basic D&O policy form or which are frequently added by endorsement.