What type of liability policy covers all claims arising out of incidents occurring during the policy period, regardless of when the claim is made?

• A. An occurrence policy
• B. A claims-made policy
• C. A retroactive policy
• D. A rider policy

Answer: (A)

The key idea is how coverage is triggered: by when the event happened, not when the claim is filed. In an occurrence policy, if an incident occurs during the policy period, claims arising from that incident are covered no matter when the claim is actually made. So even if a claim is filed after the policy has ended, it still gets covered as long as the incident occurred during the period the policy was in force. This provides long-tail protection for events that happened during the policy term.

This differs from a claims-made policy, which only covers claims made during the policy period, often requiring tail coverage or a retroactive date to extend protection for incidents that happened earlier. A rider is simply extra coverage added to an existing policy, not the mechanism by which coverage is triggered based on the timing of the event.