Certificate of insurance vs. additional insured: which one protects you

A certificate of insurance tells you a subcontractor has policies. An additional insured endorsement puts you on one of them. If you've been collecting certificates and stopping there, you've been collecting evidence of the sub's coverage, not coverage of your own.

This is general information, not legal or insurance advice.

The certificate is evidence

A certificate is a one-page summary, usually on the ACORD 25 form, of a sub's policies on the day it was issued: insurers, policy numbers, limits and dates. Its own header says it is "issued as a matter of information only and confers no rights upon the certificate holder", and that it doesn't "amend, extend or alter the coverage afforded by the policies below".

So the certificate shows that a policy exists. It doesn't make you a party to that policy or let you claim under it.

The endorsement is the coverage

When you're an additional insured, the sub's insurer has extended the policy to cover you for liability arising from the sub's work. That happens through an endorsement, a page that changes the policy itself, not through anything typed on a certificate.

It matters because injured people tend to sue everyone on the job, the general contractor included. As an additional insured you can send that claim to the sub's insurer, which may defend you and pay covered damages. Whether it pays before your own insurer depends on primary and noncontributory wording; without it, the sub's policy may treat your own insurance as first in line. As a certificate holder with no endorsement, your own policy is where the claim goes.

Being the certificate holder and being an additional insured are different things. You can be the holder without being covered, and under a blanket endorsement you can be covered without being named on the certificate. The endorsement is the only reliable answer.

Endorsements differ

• Ongoing or completed operations. Some endorsements cover you only while the sub is working; others reach claims that surface after the job is finished. A defect found after handover is a completed-operations claim.
• Blanket or scheduled. A blanket endorsement covers anyone the sub agreed in writing to add. A scheduled one names specific parties, and if you're not named, you're not covered.
• Edition. Standard forms have been revised over the years, including how far coverage follows the sub's negligence. The edition attached to the policy is the one that applies.
• Primary and noncontributory. Separate wording that makes the sub's policy pay first without asking yours to share. Contracts usually ask for it alongside additional insured status.

"They added me as additional insured" isn't a complete answer. Ask which form, for how long and on what terms. What an additional insured endorsement is walks through the common ISO forms.

Why you still need the certificate

The certificate is how you monitor. It shows whether the sub's policies are current, what the limits are and when they expire. The endorsement is what protects you. A program that works collects both: the certificate at every renewal, and the endorsement whenever the policy changes.

Getting both right

1. Write the requirement into the subcontract first: coverages, minimum limits, additional insured status (with completed operations if you need it) and primary and noncontributory wording.
2. Collect the certificate and check the insurer, limits and dates against the subcontract.
3. Ask for the endorsement pages, and check they name you or cover you through blanket wording.
4. Check the endorsement's scope matches the subcontract, including completed operations.
5. Track expiry dates and collect new certificates and endorsements at each renewal.
6. Keep them where you can find them. A claim can arrive years after the work, and you'll need to show what coverage was in place when the work was done.

Where TradeGuard fits

TradeGuard reads each certificate, tracks its expiry dates and asks subs for renewals. It reads who the certificate names as additional insured and tells you when that isn't you, or asks when it can't tell. It doesn't read or verify endorsement forms, so step 3 stays with you.