COI Flashcards
Certificate of Insurance
A certificate of insurance (COI) is proof of having insurance coverage. It is a document that summarizes your insurance policies and provides the necessary coverage details when your clients or vendors, for example, request that from you.
Period of validness
The certificate of insurance is valid for as long as your policy is active. Once your policy expires, your certificate can only be used to prove that you had insurance coverage at a given period, but it doesn’t help with future projects.
Need for COIs
Whenever you are starting a new project or a partnership, you should ensure that the new parties you work with provide adequate insurance policy certificates. You don’t want to be responsible for the claims related to their work and suffer financial losses in the process.
COI’s Elements
The good thing about COIs is that there are standardized forms that most insurance carriers, brokers, and agents use to provide proof of insurance to their clients. Those forms are called ACORD certificates.
Date
This is merely the certificate issuance date.
Disclaimer
The statement indicating that this document is proof of insurance but doesn’t in any way amend, extend, or alter the agreed coverage(s) named in the certificate.
Producer
The name of the insurer, agent, or broker who handled the insurance purchase and issued the certificate to the insured. The field should include the name and the business address.
Insured
This field refers to the policyholder. It should state the name of the individual or business entity holding the policy and their business address, just like the previous field.
Insurer(s) affording coverage
This section lists the names and NAIC numbers of insurance carriers providing the listed coverages to the insured. If there are multiple insurers, their names should stand in separate lines, as Insurer A, Insurer B, and so on.
Type of insurance (+ Insr. ltr:)
All the relevant insurance coverages are listed in this section, right next to the “Insurance letter” box. The insurance letter indicates which carrier holds what policy, and they match the companies from the “Insurer(s) affording coverage” section.
Policy EFF
The policy’s effective date is when the named coverage begins.
Policy EXP
The policy’s expiration date shows when the coverage ends under the named policy.
Policy limits
Lists the limits of each specific coverage within the policy.
Description of operations/locations/vehicles:
The producers can use this field to add any properties or entities included on any of the policies as additional insured(s). This space is also for any existing waivers of subrogation.
