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Insights

Answers, not marketing

Straight explanations of the contract and certificate terms that decide whether your coverage responds.

Plain answers to the contract and certificate questions we get asked most. These are written for the person holding a contract with a deadline on it — not for other insurance people. Every form number and statute cited here was checked against the form or the statute itself.

CertificatesAdditional insured vs. certificate holderOne gets notice. The other gets coverage. Which ISO form your contract actually needs, and what the 2013 editions changed.Risk transferPrimary and non-contributoryWhich policy pays first, whether your carrier can chase theirs — and the umbrella gap nobody mentions during negotiation.Risk transferWaiver of subrogationYou are not waiving your coverage. You are waiving your insurer's right to recover. What it costs and why timing is absolute.CertificatesWhy a certificate gets rejectedEight causes, what each one is really telling you about your policy, and which ones cannot be fixed on the document.ContractsReading a contract's insurance requirementsA clause-by-clause walkthrough of the insurance article — limits, endorsements, notice, and the indemnity clause beside it.

Why these five

Almost every difficult conversation an insurance agency has with a contractor starts in the same place: a general contractor has sent over an insurance requirements page, and the requirements use terms that sound interchangeable and are not. Additional insured, certificate holder, primary and non-contributory, waiver of subrogation — four separate mechanisms, four separate endorsements, four separate costs.

Getting them wrong is expensive in a specific and delayed way. The certificate is accepted, the job proceeds, and the gap only appears two years later when a claim is tendered and the endorsement turns out to cover ongoing operations on a completed job. By then nothing can be fixed.

So these five pages exist to be read before the contract is signed. If you would rather skip the reading, that is also fine — send us the requirements page and we will mark it up.

Who writes these

OneTrust Risk Management & Insurance is an independent property and casualty agency in Gastonia, North Carolina, licensed in North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia, and Florida. Contractors are our largest class of business, which is why the first cluster here is about construction contracts.

These pages are general explanations, not coverage opinions. What your policy covers is decided by its own language and the endorsements actually attached to it. We are glad to read both.

What's next

Answers in progress cover the coverage questions each of our largest classes asks — what garagekeepers actually pays when a customer's vehicle is damaged in your bay, why association boards get non-renewed after a roof claim, and what a fuel retailer's tank pollution coverage excludes. If there is a question you want answered here, tell us and it goes on the list.