Certificate of Insurance Forms and ACORD Standards
Certificate of Insurance Forms and ACORD Standards
This domain tests which ACORD form does what, what legal effect it has, and which fields a reviewer actually relies on.
The forms
- ACORD 25, Certificate of Liability Insurance: general liability, auto, umbrella or excess, workers compensation, with insurer, policy number, effective and expiration dates, limits and endorsement codes.
- ACORD 24, Certificate of Property Insurance.
- ACORD 27 and ACORD 28, Evidence of Property Insurance and Evidence of Commercial Property Insurance.
- ACORD 101, Additional Remarks Schedule, used for overflow text.
- ACORD 855, the New York construction certificate used where statutory wording is required.
Legal effect
- The certificate is informational evidence only. Standard wording states that it confers no rights on the certificate holder and does not amend, extend or alter coverage.
- Cancellation wording on ACORD 25 typically provides that notice will be delivered in accordance with the policy provisions. That is not a promise of thirty days' notice.
- The certificate is a snapshot at a point in time and expires with the policy it describes.
- ACORD forms are copyrighted. Altering standard wording creates regulatory and errors and omissions exposure.
Worked example
A subcontractor's certificate lists CG 20 10 and CG 20 37 in the additional insured block and CG 24 04 in the waiver block. Because CG 20 10 addresses ongoing operations and CG 20 37 addresses completed operations, a reviewer can see that both phases are intended to be endorsed. The reviewer must still confirm the endorsements are attached to the policy, because the certificate is completed from information the producer supplies.
Traps
Treating the certificate as an endorsement; accepting a blank or 'per policy' limit entry; missing that an umbrella sits with a different carrier and must be listed separately; assuming the cancellation clause creates a notice duty the insurer never agreed to.