Waiting period

The waiting period is a span, counted from the occurrence of a loss, during which cover does not yet take effect, the insured bearing alone the consequences over that interval. It works like a deductible expressed not as an amount but in time, and is found mainly in business interruption cover, where it takes the form of a number of hours or days of interruption before indemnification begins to run. Its economic role is twofold, setting aside short and frequent interruptions, whose handling would be disproportionate, and holding the insured accountable by leaving them the burden of the first phase, often the one most amenable to being controlled by good preparation. In cyber insurance, the waiting period is an important underwriting parameter for business interruption cover following an outage, a period of eight or twelve hours excluding for example micro-interruptions while covering significant stoppages. Calibrating this period is a lever for arbitrating between the breadth of protection and the cost of the premium, a longer period lowering the premium but leaving the insured exposed to intermediate interruptions.

A cyber policy provides a twelve-hour waiting period on business interruption. An outage of eight hours gives rise to no indemnification, whereas a stoppage of three days is covered for the part exceeding the first twelve hours.

délai de carence, waiting period, délai de franchise