GC request
Riverside build-out
Endorsement
Additional insured · CG 20 10
Certificate of insurance
Riverside Medical Buildout
A certificate shows coverage. It does not change it.
The GC asks for a COI with additional insured and a waiver. Here is what each piece is, which document actually does the work, and how to ask for it so the job starts on time.
Four documents, four different jobs, explained- A request checklist you can send to any GC
- Certificates issued from the policy as written
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Does a certificate of insurance make the GC an additional insured?
A certificate of insurance is a snapshot of the policies you carry on the day it is issued. It does not add coverage, and it does not make anyone an additional insured on its own. That happens through an endorsement on the policy. When a GC asks for a COI naming them as additional insured, they are asking for both: the endorsement, and the certificate that shows it.
How general liability works for any business→Markets we place through.
Four documents. Four different jobs.
The request, the policy, the endorsement, and the certificate. Only one of them changes what is covered.
GC request
Riverside build-out
The contract asks
The insurance exhibit lists limits, additional insured status, waivers, and wording. This is the request, and it cannot change your policy by itself.
The policy carries the line
General liability is where additional insured status, waivers, and primary wording live. The contract can only ask for what a policy can be endorsed to carry.
The endorsement changes it
Endorsements added to the policy do the actual work: CG 20 10 for ongoing operations, CG 20 37 for completed operations, a waiver of subrogation where required.
The certificate shows it
The COI evidences what the policy now says. It is issued from the policy as written, so the endorsement has to exist first.
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Certificate or endorsement?
Which document does which job.
What changes the request.
Four things that decide whether the certificate comes back right the first time.
Ongoing operations (CG 20 10), completed operations (CG 20 37), or both. Different forms, different cost.
An endorsement, not a certificate line. Many contracts require it.
Blanket or per project. Usually available, sometimes priced.
Exact legal name and address. A holder is not automatically an additional insured.
Riza’s read
How we handle it.
We issue certificates from the policy as written, and we say so on the certificate. When a GC asks for wording the policy does not carry, we get the endorsement added first, then the certificate, and we tell you what it costs before we do it.
We do not issue a certificate that says something the policy does not, whatever the deadline. That protects you, because a certificate that overstates coverage is the document a lawyer finds first.
The request checklist.
Send this with the contract exhibit, and the certificate comes back right the first time.
Where next.
Parent
Plumbing insurance→The whole program for plumbers, and every page behind it.Where the request comes from
Commercial plumbing→Because GC contracts are where these requirements start.Where the endorsements live
Plumbing general liability→Because additional insureds and waivers are general liability endorsements.Plain answers before the next job.
What plumbers ask about certificates.
Does a COI make the GC an additional insured?
No. The endorsement on the policy does. The certificate shows that the endorsement exists, and the standard ACORD certificate form says so in its own fine print: it confers no rights on the holder and does not amend the policy. When a GC says they need a certificate naming them as additional insured, the work is getting the endorsement onto the policy. The certificate is the last step and the easy one. What changes the answer is whether the endorsement has actually been added, so ask your broker for the endorsement form number, not only the certificate.
What is the difference between ongoing and completed operations?
Ongoing operations covers the GC as an additional insured for claims that arise while you are still working on the project: the visitor who slips on staged pipe in week three. Completed operations covers the GC for claims that arise after you finish: the joint that lets go above a finished ceiling a year later. Contracts often ask for both, and they are different endorsement forms, commonly CG 20 10 and CG 20 37. What changes the answer is which one the exhibit names, because a certificate that shows only ongoing operations does not satisfy a contract that asks for both.
Can I add a waiver of subrogation for one job?
Usually, yes. A waiver of subrogation is an endorsement that gives up your carrier’s right to recover from the GC after paying a claim, and it can be written per project or as a blanket that applies wherever a written contract requires it. It is sometimes priced, and on workers’ comp it is a separate endorsement from the one on general liability. It has to exist on the policy before the certificate can show it. What changes the answer is whether your contracts ask for it often, in which case a blanket waiver saves a request every time.
How fast can a certificate be issued?
Once the policy carries what the contract asks for, the certificate itself is the short step. The time goes into getting the endorsements right first: confirming which additional insured forms the exhibit names, adding a waiver if one is required, and getting primary and noncontributory wording onto the policy if the carrier offers it. A certificate requested the morning of mobilization for endorsements that are not yet on the policy is the request that holds up the job. What changes the answer is how early we see the exhibit, so send it with the bid.
What if the GC wants wording my policy does not have?
We tell you, and we tell you what it would cost to add. Most requests are an endorsement the carrier offers, and the answer is to add it and issue the certificate afterward. A few ask for wording no carrier writes, or a limit far above what the policy carries, and then the path is an umbrella or a conversation with the GC about what the market offers. What we do not do is put wording on a certificate that the policy does not carry, whatever the deadline, because that certificate is the document a lawyer finds first.
Who should be the certificate holder?
The certificate holder is the party the certificate is addressed to, usually the GC or the property owner, written with their exact legal name and address as it appears in the contract. Being the holder does not make them an additional insured; that still takes the endorsement. Some contracts name more than one party, such as the owner, the GC, and a lender, and each one may need both holder status and additional insured status. What changes the answer is the exhibit’s list of parties, so send every name and address with the request and say which ones need the endorsement.
Send the contract. Get the certificate right.
Endorsements first, certificate second, job on time.
Prefer to talk? Call +1 802-GOT-RIZA · Sun to Sat, 8am to 8pm ET