What Is an ACORD 25 Certificate of Insurance? A Field-by-Field Guide for GCs

When you ask a subcontractor for "proof of insurance," what lands in your inbox is almost always an ACORD 25 — the standardized one-page Certificate of Liability Insurance form published by ACORD, the insurance industry's forms organization. Every insurance agency in the country produces them, and they all look the same. That is the good news: learn to read one, and you can read them all.

This guide walks through the form section by section, in plain language, with the two endorsements GCs care most about — additional insured and waiver of subrogation — explained properly. It ends with the single most important thing to understand about certificates: what they do not prove.

The disclaimer at the top (read it once, remember it forever)

The very first paragraph of an ACORD 25 says, in capital letters, that the certificate is issued as a matter of information only, confers no rights upon the certificate holder, and does not amend, extend, or alter the coverage afforded by the policies below. In other words: the certificate is a snapshot summary, not a contract and not a guarantee. We come back to why this matters at the end.

The header: who, when, and through whom

• Date. When the certificate was issued — not when coverage starts or ends. A certificate issued yesterday can describe a policy that expires next week.
• Producer. The insurance agency or broker that issued the certificate. This is who you call with questions or to request a corrected certificate — often faster than going through the sub.
• Insured. The named insured — your subcontractor. The name here should match the name on their W-9 and your subcontract. If your contract is with "Apex Framing LLC" and the certificate says "John Smith DBA Apex," ask questions.
• Insurers A–F. The actual insurance companies. Each coverage line below is keyed to one of these by letter. If you want to check that a carrier is real and admitted in your state, this is the name to look up.

The coverage grid: the heart of the form

The middle of the form is a table with one row per policy. For each line you get the insurer letter, policy number, effective date, expiration date, and limits. Here is what a GC should check, line by line:

Commercial General Liability (CGL)

• Each Occurrence — the most the policy pays for a single incident. $1,000,000 is the common contractual minimum.
• General Aggregate — the total the policy pays across the policy period, commonly $2,000,000. Check whether the aggregate applies "per project" — there is a checkbox row for this. Without it, claims on someone else's job can eat the aggregate available for yours.
• Occurrence vs. claims-made checkbox. Most construction CGL is occurrence-based. Claims-made policies raise timing questions worth a call to your own agent.

Automobile Liability

Look for a Combined Single Limit (commonly $1,000,000) and which boxes are checked — "Any Auto" or combinations of owned/hired/non-owned. If the sub's crew drives to your site, this line matters.

Umbrella / Excess Liability

Extra limits sitting on top of the primary policies. Relevant when your contract requires higher limits than the sub's base CGL provides.

Workers' Compensation and Employers' Liability

The row your premium auditor cares about. Look for the checkbox indicating statutory limits, the employers' liability limits (E.L. Each Accident / Disease), and — critically — the effective and expiration dates. At your workers' comp audit, payments you made to a sub outside these dates are exposed; see our premium audit checklist for how that math works. Also note the "proprietor/partner/executive officer excluded?" box — a "Y" here on a one-person sub is a question for your agent, since owner-exclusion rules vary by state.

Additional insured: the checkbox and what it really means

In the CGL row there is a small column labeled ADDL INSD. When checked, it indicates your company has been added as an additional insured on the sub's liability policy — meaning if a claim arises out of the sub's work, you can seek defense and coverage under their policy, not just your own. Most GC subcontracts require this, and many GCs' own insurers expect it.

The crucial nuance: additional insured status is created by an endorsement to the policy (commonly a CG 20 10 or CG 20 37 form, or a blanket endorsement triggered by written contract) — not by the checkbox on the certificate. The checkbox is the agent's representation that such an endorsement exists. If the stakes are high, ask for a copy of the endorsement itself, and check whether the description-of-operations box names your company and project.

Waiver of subrogation: the other checkbox

Next to ADDL INSD is SUBR WVD. Subrogation is an insurer's right, after paying a claim, to recover from whoever it thinks caused the loss — which can mean the sub's workers' comp carrier suing you after paying an injury claim. A waiver of subrogation endorsement gives up that right as to your company. Again: the endorsement is the thing; the checkbox merely reports it. Waivers can appear on the CGL and the workers' comp policy separately — if your contract requires both, check both rows.

Description of operations, certificate holder, and cancellation

• Description of Operations. Free-text box where the project, your company's additional insured status, and waiver language are typically spelled out. Read it — it often contains the substance behind the checkboxes.
• Certificate Holder. Your company name and address. Being the holder gives you no coverage rights by itself; it mainly means the certificate was prepared for you.
• Cancellation. Modern ACORD 25 forms say only that the insurer will "endeavor to" deliver notice per policy provisions if coverage is cancelled early. In practice, do not count on anyone telling you a sub's policy was cancelled. Mid-term cancellation for non-payment happens, and the certificate in your file will still look valid.

What a COI does not prove — and what to do about it

Pulling the threads together, an ACORD 25 does not prove:

• That the policy is still in force today (it may have been cancelled after issuance)
• That the endorsements behind the checkboxes actually exist or say what you need them to say
• That coverage applies to your specific claim — exclusions live in the policy, not on the certificate

A reasonable, proportionate approach for a small GC: collect a current certificate from every sub before work starts, verify the dates, limits, and checkboxes against your contract requirements, request the actual endorsements for your bigger or riskier scopes, and re-collect at every renewal. Track expiration dates actively — a certificate you collected in March tells you nothing in November unless someone is watching the dates. Our COI tracking guide includes a free spreadsheet template for exactly this.

This article is general information, not insurance or legal advice. Coverage questions turn on the actual policy language and your contract — review them with your insurance agent or attorney.