Professional Liability Insurance
What Is Prior Acts Coverage on a Professional Liability Policy?
Prior acts coverage extends your new policy’s retroactive date back to cover work done before the new policy’s start date — protecting you when switching PL carriers.
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What is prior acts coverage on a professional liability policy?
When you switch professional liability carriers, the new carrier’s retroactive date defaults to the new policy start date — leaving all prior work uncovered. Prior acts coverage (also called a prior acts endorsement) backdates the retroactive date to match your original PL policy start date.
This eliminates the need to purchase tail coverage from your departing carrier. Instead of paying 150–200% of your expiring premium for a tail, you ask the new carrier to include prior acts — which may add 10–25% to the new policy premium.
Always ask for prior acts coverage when switching PL carriers. Without it, you have a gap in coverage for work done before the new policy’s retroactive date. Your agent should make this a standard part of any PL carrier transition.
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