Insurance Documentation

When you contract for either construction or consultant services, it's very important to make sure that you have your agency named as an additional insured. But what kind of documentation should you accept as evidence that your agency has been named as an additional insured?

Many insurance brokers will routinely only provide you with a certificate of insurance that will state that your agency is named as an additional insured. But such evidence does not really protect you. The most common form used for a certificate of insurance is called an "Acord" form. If you read the language in the upper right hand corner of the certificate, it states that "This certificate is issued as a matter of information only and confers no rights on the certificate holder."

As the certificate holder you want rights. In fact, you want to be named as an additional insured, because if there is a property damage or personal injury claim on the project and you are sued, you want to make sure that the contractor's or consultant's insurance policy will cover you - that you are an additional insured, in addition to the contractor or consultant being covered. Without being an additional insured, you have no protection.

So how do you ensure that you are, in fact, an additional insured? You should insist of receiving an endorsement issued by the contractor's or consultant's insurance broker. An endorsement, by definition, is an amendment to the insurance policy. The endorsement is the only proof that your agency has been named as an additional insured.

There are two types of additional insured endorsements. First, there is a blanket additional insured endorsement. In this type, the endorsement states that anyone that the contractor or consultant contracts with who requires by contract that they be named as an additional insured is automatically named as an additional insured. Second, there is a specific additional insured endorsement. In this type, the endorsement will specifically name your agency and state that you are an additional insured.


Review your contracts to make sure you have language requiring your contractors and consultants to name your agency as an additional insured. Then establish a procedure so that you collect an additional insured endorsement, in addition to a certificate of insurance.

Being named as an additional insured does not apply to professional liability insurance policies (also known as errors and omissions) generally issued to cover the work of architects and engineers and similar professions.