What form of coverage offers protection against claims made during a specified period?

The form of coverage that offers protection against claims made during a specified period is claims-made coverage. This type of insurance is particularly common in professional liability policies, such as errors and omissions insurance. With claims-made coverage, the policy must be in effect not at the time of the alleged incident, but rather at the time the claim is filed.

A significant aspect of claims-made coverage is the specified reporting period, which defines the time frame in which claims must be reported in order to be covered. This structure encourages policyholders to maintain continuous coverage since any lapse in the policy could leave them vulnerable to uncovered claims arising from incidents that occurred prior to the lapse.

In contrast, occurrence-based coverage protects insureds against claims arising from incidents that occurred during the policy period, regardless of when the claim is reported. This means that incidents can be reported long after the policy has expired, providing a broader protection scope in that respect.

Retrospective coverage is not a standard term and may relate to how certain policies handle prior incidents within a defined time, but it does not specifically define the mechanism of claims reporting during a defined period like claims-made coverage does.

Direct coverage typically refers to insurance purchased directly from an insurer without intermediaries but is not relevant in the context of