Continuity date

A continuity date refers to the earliest date from which your claims-made insurance policy will protect you against a covered loss (a mistake, omission, or other action that harms a third party).

Depending on your situation, your continuity date may be the date your current insurance began or a date far in the past when you were insured with another company.

How far back your continuity date goes depends on whether you maintained coverage continuously:

• If you never dropped your insurance, your continuity date will be the date your first insurance policy began.
• If you dropped your insurance, your continuity date will be the start date of its successor policy.
• If you’ve never had insurance before, your continuity date will be the start date of your first policy.

If an incident occurs before the continuity date, your insurance policy won’t pay for the loss, even if you file a claim under your current coverage.

If you have a claims-made policy, such as professional liability or errors and omissions (E&O) insurance, the continuity date helps your insurer determine coverage eligibility for claims arising from past incidents.

Maintaining a continuous policy ensures your claims-made coverage applies to events that occurred before your current policy began.

If coverage lapses or is canceled, your continuity date resets. That means incidents from before the lapse may no longer be covered, leaving you financially exposed.

For example, imagine you’re a freelance IT consultant:

• You purchased a claims-made tech E&O policy in January 2023, giving you a continuity date of January 1, 2023.
• In June 2026, a client reports a data breach that occurred in March 2024.
• Because you maintained continuous coverage, your insurer will review the claim for coverage.

If you had let your policy lapse for a few months in 2025, your continuity date would reset, and the March 2024 incident might not be covered. This could result in denied claims and significant out-of-pocket costs.

To make sure your continuity date remains valid, you should:

• Maintain uninterrupted coverage: Don’t let your policy lapse, even briefly.
• Notify your insurer: If switching insurance companies, ask the new insurer to honor your existing continuity date.
• Consider tail coverage: If your policy ends, tail coverage extends your protection for incidents that occurred while the policy was active.
• Review retroactive dates: Make sure your policy’s retroactive date aligns with your continuity date to avoid gaps in coverage.

These steps help ensure that claims made later—sometimes years later—are still covered, even if you’ve changed insurers.