Additional Insured Concepts and Endorsements
This domain tests how additional insured (AI) status is created, how far it reaches, and how it coordinates with other coverage. The exam is less about naming endorsements and more about scope: an AI endorsement normally buys protection for the AI's liability tied to the named insured's work or premises, not blanket protection for the AI's own separate negligence.
How AI status arises
Status comes from the policy form itself only for named insureds and automatic insureds - partners, members, managers, employees, volunteer workers. Everyone else needs an endorsement. A certificate of insurance is evidence of coverage, not a grant of it, and its disclaimers say so.
Frequently tested endorsements:
- CG 20 10 - scheduled owners, lessees, or contractors, limited to ongoing operations.
- CG 20 33 - automatic AI status for construction agreements, ongoing operations only.
- CG 20 37 - completed operations, used alongside CG 20 10 or CG 20 33.
- CG 20 11 - managers or lessees of premises.
- CG 20 26 - designated person or organization, used where the relationship is not owner/lessee/contractor.
- CG 20 01 - primary and noncontributory status when required by written contract.
- CG 24 04 - waiver of transfer of rights of recovery (subrogation) in favor of another party.
Scope and coordination
Pre-2004 CG 20 10 wording used "arising out of your ongoing operations," which courts read broadly. The 2004 and later editions narrow this to liability caused, in whole or in part, by the named insured's acts or omissions or those acting on its behalf, so the AI's sole negligence is not covered. AI status does not increase limits; the AI shares the named insured's limits. Being an AI does not by itself make the policy primary - that requires the other insurance condition or a primary and noncontributory endorsement.
Worked example
A general contractor is added as an AI under a subcontractor's policy via CG 20 10 (2013 edition), CG 20 37, and CG 20 01. A GC employee falls through an unguarded opening created by the sub during the project; the sub's policy responds and is primary. If the same injury happened after the project was completed, CG 20 10 would no longer apply and CG 20 37 would be needed. If the GC's own superintendent created the hazard and the sub was not at fault, the 2013 CG 20 10 provides no coverage for the GC's sole negligence.
Traps
The certificate is not the endorsement. Ongoing operations wording does not survive completion. "Arising out of" and "caused by" are not interchangeable. A waiver of subrogation is a separate endorsement from AI status, and contract language never overrides the policy wording.