Under a claims-made policy, a claim made in the current policy year could be charged against which policy year?

• A. Prior policy year
• B. Current policy year
• C. Future policy year
• D. No policy year; it's handled separately

Answer: (A)

In a claims-made policy, what matters is when the claim is actually made. Coverage attaches to the policy that is in force at the moment the claim is made, not to the year when the underlying incident occurred. So a claim filed in the current policy year would be charged to that same year’s policy, assuming there’s no tail or retroactive date that would shift coverage to an earlier policy. Retroactive dates can affect which policy’s coverage ultimately applies, but the default rule is that the current policy year handles a claim made during that year.