THE ESSENTIALS
Before you start
- Service completion, business closure and policy expiry are distinct.
- Read timing rules with the terms and applicable special regime.
- Keeping records and a contact neither creates nor extends cover.
The legal rule requires reading the terms
Article 139 permits temporal delimitation by event, damage or claim. For claims-based clauses, paragraph 3 provides protection for damaging events unknown to the parties occurring during the policy period and claimed in the following year, without prejudice to special law or regulation and where no later contract covers the risk. This is not universal cover for a year after any closure.
Build the closure file before the final week
Identify whether the services were provided by an individual, company or another entity. Gather policy references, relevant amendments, periods and available terms. Mark unfinished work and correspondence already requiring attention rather than hiding it during transition.
Fictional example: a consultant stops accepting work in June, completes a project in July and retains a correspondence address. She compares those dates with the policy period and requests clarification on later claims. None of those dates alone demonstrates acceptance of extended cover.
Ask about cessation itself, not just renewal
Ask which acts and entities are considered, how known circumstances should be notified and whether a contractual solution for post-expiry claims is available. If offered, request duration, conditions, limits and actual confirmation. Commercial availability is not an extension already purchased.
With group insurance, clarify what happens when membership or the relevant status ends. For company dissolution, obtain competent help on corporate matters and liabilities. This guide establishes no limitation period and recommends no policy cancellation.
Decide who receives and routes correspondence
Organise a case index and later-correspondence contact while observing applicable retention and data-protection duties. Do not derive one destruction deadline for all records from a general article. Separate insurance information from confidential customer files.
RMACHADO can help review professional-liability documents before cessation. If a claim or relevant circumstance already exists, promptly follow the contract procedure. Organising a file does not extend benefits, determine liability or confirm acceptance of a particular claim.
KEEP THESE QUESTIONS
Your checklist for the next conversation
- Identify the entity and each phase's dates.
- Gather policies, amendments and known circumstances.
- Clarify treatment of post-expiry claims.
- Arrange correspondence and appropriate protected record retention.
FROM THE ARTICLE TO YOUR SITUATION
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Sources and transparency
Content updated on .
Consultation dates are stated in individual references when available.
Numerical examples are fictional and explain concepts. Editorial interpretations are identified in the text.
Information from RMACHADO GROUP. This is not an insurance offer or individual advice. Covers, acceptance, exclusions, sums insured and costs depend on the policy. The intermediary does not underwrite the risks.