Guide · Business · 5 min read
← All guidesCertificates of insurance: what a COI proves, and what it doesn't
Landlords, lenders, and general contractors all ask for a COI. What the certificate actually proves, what it doesn't, and how to get one without a scramble.
The one-page document everyone asks for
A certificate of insurance, or COI, is a one-page summary showing that a business carries insurance: which carriers, which policy numbers, which coverage types, what limits, and what effective dates. Most are issued on a standard industry form called the ACORD 25, ACORD being the organization that standardizes insurance paperwork so everyone's certificate looks the same.
It exists because nobody wants to read someone else's full insurance policy. The landlord, general contractor, or client asking for a certificate wants fast proof that your insurance is real, current, and adequate before they let you sign the lease, step on the site, or start the work.
Who asks for them, and why
Landlords ask before a lease starts. General contractors ask before a subcontractor sets foot on site. Lenders ask about anything securing a loan. Larger clients ask because their procurement rules say they have to. In every case the requester is doing the same thing: transferring risk, making sure that if your work injures someone, your insurance responds instead of theirs.
The contract behind the request often specifies more than 'have insurance': particular limits, additional insured status, sometimes a waiver of subrogation, which is your carrier agreeing not to pursue the other party to recover a claim it paid. It's worth sending a contract's insurance clause to your agent before you sign it. Requirements are cheap to fix before signature and expensive after.
How to read one
The layout is consistent: carriers listed at the top left, a grid of coverage types with limits and policy dates in the middle, and the certificate holder, the party who requested the proof, named at the bottom. When one lands on your desk, check three things: the policy dates cover the lease or project term, the limits meet what the contract demands, and every coverage the contract requires actually appears on the page.
One distinction does most of the damage when it's missed: certificate holder versus additional insured. Being named the certificate holder means only that you receive the piece of paper. Additional insured status (genuine coverage rights under someone else's policy) requires an endorsement, a formal amendment, on the policy itself. A box checked on a certificate with no endorsement behind it is decoration.
What a COI does not do
A certificate doesn't change, extend, or guarantee coverage, and the form says so in its own fine print: it confers no rights on the certificate holder beyond what the policy itself provides. It's a snapshot of coverage on the day it was issued. The policy it describes could be cancelled the following week, and the certificate wouldn't know.
If you're the one collecting certificates (a landlord or a GC), treat the COI as a starting point, not a conclusion. For the endorsements you actually care about, ask for copies of the endorsement pages themselves, and collect fresh certificates at every renewal rather than filing one and trusting it forever.
How to get one without the scramble
Certificates come from your insurance agent, and turnaround time is a fair test of the agency you've chosen. To issue one quickly, we need three things: the certificate holder's exact legal name and address, the project or lease it's for, and any specific wording the contract demands. With those in hand, issuing a certificate is fast. Without them, it's a round of emails nobody enjoys.
If your work means constant certificate requests (subcontractors know this life well), say so. We keep your repeat holders on file so reissues become routine instead of a fire drill. There's a request form on our certificates page built for exactly this.
Reviewed by a licensed property & casualty agent · Updated July 2026
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