How to Verify Additional Insured Status on a COI

One of the most important distinctions in contractor insurance review is also one of the easiest to misunderstand.

Certificate Holder Does Not Automatically Mean Additional Insured

Being listed as the certificate holder means your organization receives the certificate.

That alone should not be interpreted as establishing additional-insured coverage.

If your contract requires additional-insured status, the review needs to go further.

What Is an Additional Insured?

An additional insured is a person or organization provided insured status under another party’s insurance policy, subject to the applicable policy and endorsement terms.

Contractual relationships frequently create these requirements, particularly in construction and other industries.

What Should You Check?

1. Start With the Contract Requirements

Determine exactly what your contract requires.

The requirement may specify:

• Additional-insured status
• Particular coverage
• Completed operations
• Primary/noncontributory wording
• Specific endorsements

Requirements vary, so don’t substitute a generic checklist for the actual contract.

2. Review the Certificate

Look for additional-insured indicators and relevant wording in the Description of Operations section. On a standardized form, the ACORD 25 verification guide shows where those indicators appear.

Treat this information as part of the review rather than the final determination of coverage.

3. Review Supporting Endorsements

When endorsements are required, make sure the appropriate documentation has been provided.

The policy and applicable endorsement language determine the scope of additional-insured coverage.

Two different things, easily conflated

It is worth being precise about what you are looking at, because the two are routinely treated as one:

• An additional-insured indication on a certificate. A tick in the ADDL INSD column, or wording in the Description of Operations. This is the broker’s summary of the position. It tells you the requirement was understood, and it is a reasonable starting point — it is not the grant of coverage, and the ACORD 25 itself says the certificate confers no rights and does not amend the policy.
• Confirmation through the endorsement or policy documentation. The endorsement is the document that actually adds an insured to the policy, and its wording is what determines who is covered, for what, and on what terms. Where the requirement is material, this is the thing to ask for.

Nothing here says a certificate indication should be ignored. It says the indication and the endorsement answer different questions, so treating the first as though it were the second is where the exposure comes from.

The Endorsement Forms You Will See Named

Where a certificate does cite a form number, it is usually in the Description of Operations box, and usually one of a small set of ISO general liability forms. Knowing roughly what each covers is the difference between reading a form number as reassurance and reading it as information.

CG 20 10 — ongoing operations

Additional insured status for liability arising out of the named insured’s ongoing operations performed for you. The common one, and the one that tends to be cited on its own. Note what the name is telling you: ongoing. Once the work is finished, the exposure it addresses has largely ended.

CG 20 37 — completed operations

Additional insured status for liability arising out of work that has been completed. This is the one that matters after the contractor has left, which for construction, installation and anything structural is when a great many claims actually arrive. It is a separate form from CG 20 10 and does not come with it automatically.

CG 20 26 — scheduled person or organization

Additional insured status for a party specifically named on the endorsement, rather than tied to a particular kind of operation. Worth checking that the party named is actually your entity, spelled correctly.

The practical consequence: if your contract requires additional insured status for both ongoing and completed operations, a certificate citing only CG 20 10 does not evidence half of what you asked for. That is one of the most common and least noticed shortfalls in contractor insurance review, because the form number is present and looks like compliance.

Blanket, scheduled, and editions

Three further distinctions worth being aware of:

• Blanket versus scheduled. A blanket endorsement grants additional insured status to anyone a written contract requires it for. That is convenient and it is conditional — your contract has to actually require it, in writing, usually before the work began. A scheduled endorsement names parties, and if you are not named it does not reach you.
• Carrier-specific forms. Many insurers use their own endorsements rather than the ISO forms. A form number you do not recognise is not a red flag; it is a reason to read the endorsement rather than the number.
• Edition dates. The ISO forms have been revised, and editions differ in how they handle the extent of coverage and whether it is limited to what the contract requires. Where it matters, the edition date on the endorsement is part of the answer.

None of this is resolvable from the certificate. All of it is resolvable from the endorsement, which is the argument for asking for it where the engagement warrants it.

The Other Three Things in the Same Clause

Additional insured status almost never appears alone in a contract. It arrives in a sentence alongside two or three related requirements, and they are routinely checked as a block when each has its own evidence:

• Primary and non-contributory determines whose policy responds first and whether yours has to contribute. It has no tick box on the ACORD 25 at all — see primary and non-contributory on a COI.
• Waiver of subrogation stops the contractor’s insurer pursuing you after it pays a claim. Different endorsement, different policy lines — see waiver of subrogation on a COI.
• Certificate holder is simply who the document was sent to, and is the item most often mistaken for the other three.

4. Compare the Documentation With the Requirement

Don’t simply ask:

“Does the certificate say additional insured?”

Ask:

“Does the documentation provided satisfy the requirement established for this contractor and project?”

5. Escalate Questions That Require Coverage Interpretation

If the documentation is unclear or a coverage determination is required, consult the appropriate insurance producer, carrier or qualified insurance professional.

Why This Matters

A team can collect hundreds of certificates and still create exposure if nobody is checking whether the documents correspond with contractual insurance requirements.

The goal isn’t simply document collection.

It’s identifying exceptions before they become problems.

Find Additional-Insured Issues Faster

Verisova helps compare contractor insurance documentation with project requirements and surface items that may need attention.

Review:

• Additional-insured indicators
• Endorsement documentation
• Certificate-holder information
• Policy information
• Project requirements
• Potential gaps or inconsistencies

COI verification software reads the additional-insured wording and the Description of Operations out of an uploaded certificate and reports what the certificate indicates, alongside the endorsements your project requires. To be clear about the boundary: it reports what the document says. It does not read the underlying endorsement, obtain it from the carrier, or determine whether additional-insured coverage actually applies. Where the answer needs to be certain, that is a conversation with the producer, the carrier or a qualified insurance professional.

Working through the wider review at the same time? The COI compliance checklist keeps the order consistent, and ACORD 25 verification shows where these indicators sit on the form.

Review a contractor’s COI with Verisova — two reviews are free.