COI request sheet for a subcontractor's insurance agent
The one page a subcontractor forwards to their insurance agent. You fill in who the certificate is for, the limits and endorsements your subcontract requires and where to send them, and send it with your first request.
What the sheet is
It is headed “What we need from your insurance agent”, and it is written to the agent, not to the subcontractor. It opens with a short note: your client is working with us, please issue a certificate of insurance and send it to us with a copy of each endorsement ticked on this page. Under that are the blanks, a table of limits and a list of endorsements to tick.
How to fill in the blanks
| Blank | What to write |
|---|---|
| Your client (the subcontractor) | The subcontractor's legal name, as on the subcontract. |
| Project name and address | The job the certificate is for. |
| Certificate holder, our exact legal name | Your company as your contracts state it. The agent copies it onto the certificate, so a short form here becomes a short form there. |
| Certificate holder address | The address that goes with that name. |
| Send documents to (email) | One address that is read every day. |
| Needed by (date) | A date ahead of the start date, with room for a correction. |
| Limits required | The limit your subcontract requires beside each coverage. Workers' compensation is already printed as statutory. Strike through a row you do not require, and use the row marked Other for anything more. |
| Endorsements required | A tick beside each of the six that your subcontract requires. |
| Name as additional insured | Your company, and anyone else your contract lists, such as the project owner. |
| Questions to (name and phone) | Who the agent can call. |
A box at the foot of the sheet asks the agent to show the certificate holder exactly as you wrote it, to name the project in the description of operations, and to confirm the workers’ compensation policy covers the state where the work is.
The form numbers it names
Each endorsement on the sheet is followed by a standard form number, and each number by the words “or equivalent”. The numbers are examples: the sheet says that a carrier’s own form giving the same protection is accepted. Which of the six to tick is set by your subcontract, so settle that with your broker and a construction attorney in your state, not from this sheet.
| Endorsement | Form named, or equivalent |
|---|---|
| Additional insured for ongoing operations | CG 20 10 |
| Additional insured for completed operations | CG 20 37 |
| Primary and non-contributory | CG 20 01 |
| Waiver of subrogation on general liability | CG 24 04 |
| Waiver of subrogation on auto liability | CA 04 44 |
| Waiver of subrogation on workers' compensation | WC 00 03 13 |
Before you tick the workers' compensation waiver
Why it cuts the back and forth
The agent issues the certificate, and the request reaches them through the subcontractor. A request passed on as “they need a certificate” produces a certificate and nothing more. The endorsements, your exact name and the project then take a second email and a third. The sheet puts all of it in front of the agent the first time: who the certificate is for, each limit, each form, and where to send them.
Send it with the first of the certificate of insurance request emails. The fifth email on that page is the same request written straight to the agent.
Related
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