Many times clients will ask for a certificate to prove they have insurance and they will mention that the event needs to be listed as an additional insured under their General Liability policy.

The General Liability policy protects your business from claims arising from alleged bodily injury, personal injury or property damage liability. It includes protection for services you render or products you sell. Coverage payments can include judgments, attorney fees, court costs, or other related expenses.

If a Certificate of Insurance is issued, listing your client as a certificate holder, it provides “proof of insurance” only and does not afford any coverage to your client. There is no charge for a Certificate of Insurance of this type.

At other times, your client may require to be listed as an Additional Insured on your policy. A Certificate of Insurance is issued, but it lists your client as an Additional Insured in the description. Your policy does need to be changed to include the Additional Insured on the actual policy. The company may initiate a charge for each Additional Insured added to your policy, as your policy will afford coverage for the additional insured in the event of a lawsuit.

Once the additional insured is on your policy, they stay on until policy expiration. You may have more than one event during the policy term for this client, which requires listing them as Additional Insured on each event. You will only be charged once for each additional insured during the policy term.

Most agencies do no list anyone as an Additional Insured onto your policy unless you ask them to have them listed. If one of your clients calls our office with a request, we advise them to contact you, as you are the one that needs to request it, due to the additional premium charge.

Scott DeSousa, CIC
The Friedman Group, Inc.
desousas@friedman-group.com
www.friedman-group.com