What a Certificate of Insurance Proves — and What It Doesn’t
A certificate is a snapshot, not a contract. It tells you a policy existed on the day it was issued — and nothing at all about the exclusions that decide whether a claim gets paid.
- A COI is evidence of coverage as of its issue date. It confers no rights and does not amend the policy.
- Additional insured status comes from an endorsement on the policy, not from the wording typed in the certificate’s description box.
- Ongoing operations versus completed operations is the distinction that matters most for construction — many endorsements only cover the former.
- A certificate cannot show you exclusions, sublimits or whether the policy is admitted or surplus lines. Request the endorsement forms.
- Track expiration dates for every subcontractor: an expired certificate at audit is charged to your policy at your class rate.
What the form actually is
The standard form is the ACORD 25. It lists the insured, the carrier, the policy numbers and terms, the limits by coverage part, and a free-text description box. It carries a disclaimer in plain language stating that the certificate confers no rights and does not alter the policy.
That disclaimer is the whole point. A certificate is issued by an agent as a courtesy summary. It is not the contract, and if the certificate and the policy disagree, the policy wins.
Which means requesting a certificate satisfies your paperwork obligation and tells you comparatively little. The verification you actually want is one level deeper.
Reading one properly
Check the named insured against the entity you contracted with — a certificate for a related LLC with a similar name is a common and consequential mismatch.
Check the policy dates against your project dates, including the tail: if the job finishes in November and the policy expires in September, you need the renewal certificate.
Check the limits against your contract requirement, coverage by coverage: general liability per occurrence and aggregate, products-completed operations aggregate, auto combined single limit, workers’ comp statutory, umbrella if required.
Check the boxes. The certificate has checkboxes for additional insured and subrogation waiver by coverage line. An unchecked box with helpful language typed in the description box is not the same thing.
Check the certificate holder line — it should name you, in the right entity name, with your address.
Additional insured: where the real content lives
Additional insured status is created by an endorsement attached to the policy — commonly a blanket automatic endorsement triggered by written contract, or a scheduled endorsement naming you specifically.
The critical distinction is ongoing operations versus completed operations. Many blanket endorsements cover only ongoing operations, meaning coverage ends when the sub finishes. Construction defect claims arrive years later, which is exactly when the endorsement no longer helps you.
Ask for the endorsement form numbers and read them. Also ask about primary and non-contributory wording, which determines whether their policy pays before yours, and about the waiver of subrogation, which stops their carrier from suing you after paying a claim.
What a certificate can never tell you
Exclusions. A policy with a residential construction exclusion, a height limitation, a subcontractor warranty or an action-over exclusion produces exactly the same certificate as one without.
Sublimits. A $1 million limit with a $50,000 sublimit on the exposure that matters looks identical on the form.
Whether the policy is admitted or surplus lines, and the carrier’s financial strength rating.
Whether the policy is still in force. A certificate is a snapshot; policies get cancelled for non-payment the week after one is issued. The 30-day notice of cancellation provision helps only if you are named for notice.
For high-value or high-risk work, request the endorsement forms and, where the exposure justifies it, the full policy. Then check the carrier’s rating.
Managing certificates you collect
If you use subcontractors, certificate tracking is a real administrative function, not a folder. You need a current certificate on file for every sub you pay, with limits at least equal to yours, you named as additional insured, and expiration dates diaried.
The consequence of skipping it is immediate and financial: at your comp and general liability audit, payments to subcontractors without certificates are treated as payroll and charged at your class rate. This is routinely a five-figure adjustment for contractors.
Set the rule simply: no current certificate, no payment. It is the only version of the policy that survives a busy month.