Certificate Of Liability Insurance Form Example

The right form makes ensuring your vendors and contractors are in compliance much easier. With an ACORD certificate of insurance verification becomes a matter of confirming each of the listed values matches what your requirements are.

Easy, right? Not exactly. The easy and unquestioned access of anyone to certificate of liability insurance form PDFs means that you may need to also verify the coverage with the issuing agent or broker. Knowing how to verify a certificate of insurance with the issuing agent is a handy skill for risk team members or compliance admins to have. Business insurance is a complicated business, and it pays dividends to learn all the skills you can.

Sometimes it’s not just coverage you have to verify. If you’ve held this certificate for a while, you may want to verify that the certificate is still valid. Coverage expires, or gets modified, and sometimes new certificates with accurate coverage are not provided to you.

Regardless, knowing how to verify a certificate of liability insurance form is a skill every compliance admin or risk manager needs to know. It’s so easy to find any certificate of insurance online these days that anyone with ill intent can just search for “how to get ACORD insurance certificate” and find one they can fill out, right there.

Also, remember that of the offerings in ACORD insurance services, actually offering insurance is not one of them. We get a lot of random questions about things like “ACORD insurance reviews,” when people clearly mean a review of actual insurance coverage. That’s not a thing they do.

Certificate Of Insurance Sample PDF

Let’s take a moment and run through a sample certificate of liability insurance. In its most simple form, a certificate of insurance is the evidence from your insurer that you carry the insurance you claim to carry. The normal forms include all the necessary information a requestor would need to verify that you or your business carry the insurance they require of their contracted entities. Just like your driver’s license says your state believes you know how to drive safely, a certificate of insurance says your agent or broker believes you are covered. A certificate of insurance sample, even a certificate of insurance example PDF, will be useful guides.

There are nuances, of course. The certificate of insurance for businesses may be different, and will almost certainly carry different information, than the certificate of insurance for contractors, because the work done, the number of employees involved, and therefore the risk involved can be different.

A certificate of insurance also removes the need for unnecessary conversations. If you’re being considered for a job, competing on the bid is enough work. Not having to explain your insurance coverage, because your certificate of insurance explained it for you, can be a real time saver.

Remember too that insurance requirements vary by state, which means that certificate of insurance requirements by state vary also. Knowing when to request a certificate of insurance or, if you’re on the receiving end, how to check certificates of insurance can often be the difference between risk being managed and risk being out of control.

ACORD Certificate Of Liability Insurance Form

If you run a small business today, then you have probably already seen firsthand the importance of protecting your investment against unexpected damages and events. While you certainly plan to do everything you can to provide exceptional products and services to your customers, it is also important to think about your liability if something beyond your control happens.

An ACORD certificate of insurance PDF is key because it serves as proof that your business is adequately protected against potential risks. Especially in certain industries, many clients will hesitate to go with a company that does not have the right protection in place and the right forms to show what kinds of protection they have. This is why it is important for you to learn how to get an ACORD certificate of insurance sample. 

When new business leaders think about ACORD insurance services, they are often envisioning an insurance company that provides them with a specific type of insurance. However, keep in mind that this is not quite what ACORD does. Instead, ACORD is a nonprofit organization whose main service is to provide insurance form solutions. 

It is also important to remember that these forms sometimes change from year to year. This is why the ACORD certificate of liability insurance 2020 form may not necessarily be the same as the ACORD certificate of liability insurance 2021 form—not that either of those exist, as the last update was 2016. Quite often, we at myCOI get asked about annual updates to forms that were not, in fact, updated, so always be sure to go to the ACORD site itself and double-check was the most recent version of the form is. ACORD certificate of liability insurance PDFs are a useful tool, but there’s a lot of misinformation out there. 

All things considered, in order for you to make sure that you can prove your business is adequately protected, it is important to make sure that you have the right certificate of insurance liability form. Plus, if you are wondering how to do that exactly, then it is important to take a closer look at the instructions that go along with this certificate of insurance ACORD form, or even just practice reading a blank certificate of insurance. Not so you can fill it out, but so that you can confirm that your insurance agent or broker, who is the only person who should be creating your certificates of insurance, got all the details right.

Sample Certificate Of Insurance With Additional Insured

IRMI—the International Risk Management Institute—defines an additional insured as “a person or organization not automatically included as an insured under an insurance policy who is included or added as an insured under the policy at the request of the named insured.” That translates quite often as “I need to extend the coverage I purchase from my insurer to the third-party hiring me to do some work.” 

A sample of additional insured endorsements is relatively easy to find online. A quick search will turn up a plethora of certificate of insurance additional insured wording. What you’re going to see is a standard certificate of insurance, but with the addition of the additional insured. Be careful that you don’t mistake a sample certificate of insurance with additional insured for an example of the kind of coverage you need to secure for your business; that’s a conversation you need to have with your insurer, not something you get from a PDF. A sample COI with additional insured is just meant to be an example of format.

ACORD Certificate Of Insurance Sample

It may be helpful to take a look at a blank ACORD form, or other sample COI form. This might also include a sample certificate of insurance with additional insured information.

There are a lot of boxes out on this form. Whether you’re reviewing a certificate issued by your agent or other insurer, these include:

• You need to make sure your general liability insurance is listed. This typically includes l the per occurrence limit and the aggregate limits of the policy.
• You also need to confirm the policy number. This includes the policy effective date and the policy expiration date.
• If you have automobile liability insurance, you need to include this as well. Again, make sure you confirmed the policy number, effective date, and expiration date.
• If you have workers’ compensation and employers t liability insurance, you should include all of this information as well. This includes the policy number, effective date, and expiration date.
• You may also have an umbrella or excess insurance policy. An umbrella or excess policy is a policy that kicks in if you exceed the maximum liability on some or all of the underlying insurance policies. 

If you have questions about how an  ACORD form should be filled out properly, you may want to take a look at an ACORD form sample for help.

Sample ACORD 25

As you are looking at your ACORD certificate of insurance form sample, and then double-checking your own actual certificate, it is important to make sure there are no mistakes. If you’re providing this certificate to a hiring entity, they’re going to verify your coverage. If there are discrepancies, that could slow down when you begin work or even delay the project.

Think of it this way: in many states, you’re required to carry a certificate of car insurance sample—well, not a sample, the little card your car insurance agent gives you is the actual certificate—in case you get pulled over, to prove you’re covered in case of an accident. Companies have to do the same check, except the insurance requirements for businesses when dealing with other businesses are far more complex.  

If you’re learning how to read certificates of insurance, an ACORD 25 sample is a good place to start. It is the most common general liability certificate of insurance form.

On the ACORD 25 form, there are a few common mistakes people make. One of the most common mistakes is getting policy numbers confused. Your auto, workers’ compensation, and general liability insurance policies may have different policy numbers. Make sure you pair the right policy number with the right type of insurance. 

Furthermore, these policies may have different expiration dates. Do not assume they all have the same effective date and expiration date. If you do, you may end up assigning the wrong dates to the wrong policies. This will render your ACORD 25 form PDF inaccurate. Double-check the policy effective dates and expiration dates before you provide the certificate to anyone. If you have questions about your insurance policies, reach out to your insurance provider for more information.

The easy availability of free ACORD 25 certificate of insurance forms means many are tempted to fill out their own COIs, but don’t fall prey to that; only your broker or agent should be issuing certificates.

ACORD Certificate Of Insurance Verification

Certificate of insurance compliance is the work a risk manager or compliance admin does to collect, verify and maintain the certificates of insurance provided to that company by its third parties: they are the experts who know how to verify a certificate of insurance for compliance.

Each certificate of insurance has to be checked, first and foremost to ensure that it claims all the necessary coverages, amounts, limits, and exclusions that your company requires of its contractors. Sure, there is general liability insurance mentioned, but does it protect to the same amount that you require?

Also, what assurances do you have that the contractor didn’t let the policy lapse the day after they handed you the COI? Are you verifying with insurance agents that these contractors still hold the policies and protections that their COI claims? Are there exclusions to the contractor’s protection that will mean you’re held responsible for risk that should properly rest with the contractor?

Remember that there are varied certificates of insurance requirements by state, and you need to be aware of them. Certificate of insurance best practices in every case remind you to check your state requirements, and we’d be remiss if we didn’t do the same.

If your agent uses the common ACORD certificate of insurance verification is much easier; the forms are standardized, and tools like myCOI are trained to read those forms very easily. Otherwise, you may sometimes get an ACORD certificate of property insurance when you expect a general liability form; that’s a big red flag.