A contractor wins a bid and the general contractor needs a COI before work starts Monday. A tenant signs a commercial lease and the landlord won't hand over the keys without proof of GL. A vendor is onboarded and procurement won't approve the PO without a certificate on file.
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On the form
Each active liability policy generates its own row on the ACORD 25 form with its own limits and policy number. A business with several liability lines will usually have them reflected on a single certificate; property cover is evidenced on a separate ACORD form.
Bodily injury, property damage, and personal and advertising injury to third parties. Almost every contract, lease and vendor agreement specifies a GL limit as a minimum requirement, which makes this the row a requesting party reads first.
Liability and physical damage for business-operated vehicles. Lenders or clients require proof that business vehicles are covered, and a lender usually wants a position on the policy rather than a line on the form.
Medical costs and lost wages for on-the-job injuries, and defence of employer lawsuits. Contracts often require proof before work begins, and most sites will not let a crew on without it. Texas makes the cover elective for most private employers.
Additional limit that stacks on top of underlying general liability, auto or employer liability. Clients and general contractors requiring higher total limits than a primary policy provides are satisfied by this row plus the ones it sits above.
Errors in professional services, and data breach and cyber incident response costs. Technology engagements and data-handling contracts specify minimum limits for these separately from the general liability figure.
Five rows is common and none of them is the whole story, because a row shows a limit and never the wording underneath it. Where a contract sets out what the cover has to do rather than how large it has to be, the clause is answered on the underlying general liability policy and, where the stated minimum runs past what a primary policy carries, on an excess layer above it. Both are worth reading before a certificate is issued rather than after it is refused.
Who is asking
A COI request can come from almost any direction, and each direction asks for different wording rather than a different certificate. Pick the closest match and we will tell you what the request is really after.
Most landlords require proof of general liability before handing over keys, often with themselves named as additional insured. Some also require tenants to carry property coverage above a minimum limit.
Three more come up often enough to plan for. Bidding on public or commercial contracts, where COI requirements are a bid condition and a missing or incorrect certificate disqualifies the bid before the work is even reviewed. Equipment or vehicle financing and leasing, where the lender wants loss payee or additional insured status on the policy itself rather than a mention on the form. And professional services engagements, where enterprise and institutional clients increasingly require proof of professional liability alongside general liability before a statement of work is signed.
A COI is a snapshot issued on a specific date. It proves coverage existed at issuance. It does not guarantee that coverage remained active throughout the duration of a project or lease, and it is not the policy.
Where the line falls:
It proves: That on the day of issue the policies listed existed, in the types and at the limits printed on the form.
It does not prove: That the cover stayed in force. If a policy lapses after the certificate is issued, the paper already sent does not change.
It proves: Who the named insured is, which carriers are on the risk, and which party asked for proof.
It does not prove: What the policy says. Exclusions, sub-limits and endorsement conditions that decide a claim sit in the underlying policy, not on the certificate.
The two documents are also read by different people. The party asking for proof reads the certificate; the party paying a claim reads the policy. So where a contract sets out what the cover has to do, the sentence that satisfies it belongs on the policy the clause is really about, and the certificate's job is only to say that the policy is there.
ACORD 25
The standard ACORD 25 form fields and what each one means. Understanding these fields helps you verify that a COI you receive, or one you request, is complete and accurate.
WHAT IT TELLS YOU
The business or individual that holds the insurance policy. If this is not the entity named in the contract, nothing further down the form is read.
WHAT IT TELLS YOU
The insurance broker or agent who arranged the coverage, and who the requesting party contacts when a certificate has to be reissued.
WHAT IT TELLS YOU
The carrier or carriers providing the coverage. Several appear where different lines are placed separately, which is normal rather than a problem.
WHAT IT TELLS YOU
Each active line of coverage, general liability, auto, workers compensation, umbrella, listed with its own section and its own figures.
WHAT IT TELLS YOU
The unique identifier for each policy listed on the certificate, and the reference anyone verifying it will quote back.
WHAT IT TELLS YOU
The active coverage window for each policy. The certificate is evidence only inside this period and says nothing about the day after it.
WHAT IT TELLS YOU
Per-occurrence, aggregate, and any applicable sub-limits for each coverage type, which is the figure a contract minimum is measured against.
WHAT IT TELLS YOU
The party requesting proof of insurance. They receive the certificate, and notice of cancellation only if an endorsement on the policy provides for it. That is the whole of what the box gives them.
Underneath the grid sits the description of operations, a free text field describing the project, contract or relationship the certificate is issued for, and it is where additional insured status is noted if it applies. Those two boxes are where most returned certificates are returned, so send the contract with the certificate request and we will read them with you. Where a site also asks for proof of cover for employee injury, the same read applies to that policy's wording rather than only to its limit.
Proof and rights
Most contracts ask for two things in one breath, and a certificate can only deliver one of them. The gap between a certificate holder and an additional insured is where every expensive surprise on this page lives.
That on the day it was issued, the policies listed existed, in the types and at the limits shown. That is the whole of it. The form describes itself as a matter of information only, and it confers no rights on anybody reading it. Everything that decides a claim, the exclusions, the sub-limits and the conditions attached to an endorsement, is in the policy rather than on the page summarising it.
A copy of the form, and notice of cancellation only where an endorsement on the policy provides for it. No rights under the policy itself. A certificate holder cannot make a claim against your cover, so a request to be named as certificate holder is a request to be kept informed rather than a request to be insured. Being listed there is where a great many parties believe the job is done.
An additional insured is extended coverage under your policy for specified operations, and can make a direct claim against that policy. Adding one requires the policy to provide it, by an endorsement or a blanket provision, not just a field on the certificate. Most contracts require both: the requesting party named as certificate holder on the COI, and an additional insured endorsement attached to the underlying general liability policy.
Read the clause before you ask for the paperwork. A contract that says named as additional insured has asked for an endorsement, and a certificate that lists that party as holder satisfies the sentence on the page and nothing underneath it. Send us the clause and we will read it against your policy with you, which is also the moment to check whether the rest of the stack is sized for the contract rather than for last year's work.
Speak to our teamContract check
Contract wording rarely asks for a certificate. It asks for things that have to be on the policy before a certificate can evidence them. Each line below is a clause we see often, and the endorsement it actually requires.
What has to be on the policy first
Tick the clauses in your contract and the endorsement each one needs appears here.
Send us the clause rather than your summary of it. Some carriers write half of these blanket and some refuse them one at a time, and which of the two you are dealing with decides how long the request takes.
Speak to our teamAcceptance
A certificate is either accepted by the party that asked for it or it is not, and the difference is almost never the quality of the cover behind it. Six fields decide it, and five of them are settled long before anybody requests the paperwork.
The name on the certificate has to be the entity in the contract, not the trading name, not the parent company, and not the name typed on the purchase order. This is the single most common reason a certificate comes back.
Whether the endorsement is actually on the policy, and whether it names the party the contract names. A certificate can state it. Only the policy can do it, by an endorsement or a blanket provision.
Per occurrence, aggregate, and any line the clause sets separately from the rest. A certificate showing less than the contract asks for is usually refused on receipt, often without a conversation.
Effective and expiration dates against the term of the project, lease or purchase order. A certificate that expires mid-term takes the vendor record down with it and stops the work behind that.
Free text naming the project, site, contract number or relationship the certificate is issued for. A description that could belong to any job is treated as evidence of none of them.
Primary and non-contributory, waiver of subrogation, completed operations, notice of cancellation. Each is a separate endorsement, each is checked separately, and each has to exist before it can be shown.
Three marks is a field that sends a certificate back more often than the others listed here. It is drawn from what gets refused in practice rather than from any carrier rule, and no carrier publishes this.
The certificate is the last document in the chain and the one everybody looks at, which is why it takes the blame for decisions made much earlier. The entity name was agreed at contract stage. The limits were set in the clause. The additional insured endorsement is either on the policy or it is not. By the time a certificate is requested there is nothing left to get right except the paperwork, and that is why we ask what your contracts require when the cover is placed rather than when the certificate is asked for.
Talk to an expertProcess
We understand your business first, then take it to the carriers who want to write it. An advisor walks you through the options and what they cost. No two files are the same, so what follows is the shape of a placement rather than a script.
What you do, where, with how many people, and what your contracts oblige you to carry. Those answers decide which markets will look at the file at all, and how much of the rest of this applies to you.
One set of information goes to underwriters with genuine appetite for your work rather than whoever happened to quote last renewal. An advisor talks you through what comes back and what it costs.
A main contractor wants proof before your crew can start, and this is how COIs get issued here. We read the certificate request against your contract, so any endorsement it needs is requested from the carrier before the certificate is issued.
A one-page summary of your active insurance coverage, issued on the standard ACORD 25 form. It is not the policy itself. It proves that coverage exists, identifies the type and limits, and names the party requesting proof. Almost every commercial contract, lease and vendor agreement requires one before work begins.
No, and the difference decides whether a claim can be made. A certificate holder receives a copy of the COI, gets notice of cancellation only if an endorsement on the policy provides for it, and has no rights under the policy itself. An additional insured is extended coverage for specified operations and can claim against that policy directly. Adding one requires a policy endorsement, not a field on the certificate.
It proves coverage existed on the date it was issued. It does not guarantee the policy stayed in force. If cover lapses the week after it is sent, the certificate does not reflect that. This is why most parties ask for a fresh certificate at each renewal and why a notice of cancellation endorsement is worth having on the policy.
Usually one of four things. The entity name does not match the contract, the limits are below the stated minimum, the dates do not span the term, or the contract asked for additional insured status that is not endorsed on the policy. All four are readable before the certificate is sent, which is the argument for having a broker read the request rather than process it.
An endorsement that makes your policy respond first and stops your insurer asking the other party's policy to contribute. Construction and vendor contracts request it alongside additional insured status, and it is a separate endorsement that has to be on the policy before a certificate can show it.
An endorsement under which your insurer gives up its right to recover from the party you contracted with after it has paid a claim. It is asked for routinely in construction and vendor agreements. Carriers treat it as something you buy rather than something you are owed, because it removes a recovery they would otherwise pursue.
No. Only the policy can, through a blanket provision or an endorsement the broker requests from the carrier. A certificate produced with a party typed into the additional insured box and no endorsement behind it evidences nothing at all, and that is a failure which surfaces at claim rather than at issue, when it is far too late to fix.
Assume yes for anything that puts you on somebody else's premises, sells into an enterprise or government buyer, or leases equipment or vehicles. Each party can ask for different limits and different wording, so a certificate belongs to a relationship rather than being one document you reuse across all of them.
Get started
If your policy is placed through Rosella we issue the certificate. Send the contract clause with the request and we will read it with you, so any endorsement the clause needs is requested from the carrier first. If the cover is not in place yet, that is the conversation to have before the certificate is.
This page is general information, not a coverage determination. What your policy covers is governed by its own terms, conditions, and exclusions.
