Lapse In Coverage - E&O Recommendation for Gaps

[JimYoung]

I was selling insurance for about 4 years previously and went into a different career path for a few years (so I had a lapse in E&O coverage). Now I'm considering getting back into the game, but my E&O carrier has informed me that they no longer cover those 4 years of policies that I was writing. Does anyone know of any E&O carriers that would cover all the work I've done prior to my lapsing of policy as well as new ones going forward? I've only done 100-150k of premium a year during my 4 years. Thanks!

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I guess what I meant to say might have been termed "prior acts coverage"...E&O insurance that covers policies I wrote from 6 years ago, thanks!

 

[kristophmarsh]

I suppose what you're looking for here, is an insurer that will offer you unlimited retroactive coverage. In other words, a policy that will not include a retroactive date exclusion.

To be honest, it sounds like you could have handled the lapsing of your previous policy a little better. To be thorough, you should have really considered purchasing some level of run-off coverage to ensure that you were covered for your activities, even if a claim didn't materialise until further down the track.

Now that you've decided to get back into the game, it places you in a slightly awkward position because you're asking for an insurer to provide coverage for something that could be potentially very risky for them.

I would suggest that you ask them to price this consideration into their quote. You might need to ask around to find an underwriter that is prepared to do this, however, provided it's priced accordingly, it's not an unrealistic request in my opinion.

It's important to understand that while you may be able to obtain unlimited retroactive coverage, the policy will exclude "known claims and circumstances". So if you're aware of issues resulting from your past activities prior the new policy's establishment, any claim which materialises won't be covered anyway.