Notification timing is one of the most consequential and least understood disciplines in insurance. Most policies require the insured to tell insurers of claims, and often of mere circumstances that might give rise to a claim, within defined windows and conditions. Get this right and cover responds as intended; get it wrong and an otherwise valid claim can be reduced or refused on a technicality that has nothing to do with the merits of the loss. For a board, the risk is that operational managers, focused on resolving the underlying problem, simply forget that the clock is running. This report explains how notification triggers and conditions work in your chosen jurisdiction and industry, the good-faith and condition-precedent principles that give them force, the early indicators that a notifiable event has arisen, the impact of getting timing wrong, and when to involve brokers and coverage counsel so that notice is given correctly and protectively rather than late or not at all.
Reference material for informed readers, not advice.
