In claims-made cover, the date from which triggering events are covered, earlier events being excluded.
The retroactive date is an essential parameter of covers operating on a claims-made basis. It sets the date from which events giving rise to liability are capable of being covered, any event earlier than this date being excluded from cover, even if the claim itself is made during the policy period. It thus tempers the logic of the claims-made basis, which retains the date of the claim rather than that of the event, by setting a backward boundary beyond which the insurer does not agree to reach. The choice and continuity of this date are of considerable practical importance, particularly on a change of insurer, where care must be taken that the new policy adopts a retroactive date old enough not to leave uncovered the old events not yet claimed. A retroactive date that is too recent creates a gap in cover for those events, the classic situation of an orphan loss that no contract takes on. In professional liability as in cyber, where the consequences of an event can surface belatedly, checking this date is an indispensable reflex.
A company changes insurer and accepts, without noticing, a new policy whose retroactive date is set on the day the policy incepts. A defect committed a year earlier, claimed afterwards, is covered neither by the old contract nor by the new one.
date de reprise du passé, retroactive date, reprise du passé