Contract insurance requirements checker

How to use it

Open the contract's insurance section next to your certificate and your endorsements. For each coverage the contract mentions, tick "The contract requires..." and a table opens with two columns: what the contract requires and what your policy has.

The tool covers eight coverages, each with its own items:

• General liability: each occurrence and aggregate limits, additional insured for ongoing and for completed operations, waiver of subrogation, primary and noncontributory, per-project aggregate, completed operations years and notice of cancellation in days. This one is ticked when the page opens.
• Commercial auto: combined single limit, additional insured, waiver, primary and noncontributory, notice.
• Workers' comp and employers liability: the employers liability each-accident limit, waiver, notice.
• Umbrella or excess: limits, additional insured, primary and noncontributory, notice.
• Professional liability, cyber: limits and notice.
• Pollution liability: limits, additional insured, notice.
• Property or builder's risk: limit, waiver, notice.

Dollar amounts and years or days are typed; yes/no items are checkboxes. Your "has" column comes from your policy and its endorsements, not from the certificate alone. The Save button keeps the worksheet in this browser; Print makes a paper copy.

The math

There is no formula, only a comparison, item by item.

• A limit, years or days: met when what you have is at least what the contract requires. If you leave "has" blank, it reads as a gap and the message says so.
• A yes/no item: it only counts if you tick the contract column. It is met if you also tick your policy column, and it is a gap if you do not.
• Blank requirements: a limit or number left empty in the contract column is ignored.

The result is a count of gaps, a count of requirements met, and a table with the coverage, the gap and how it is usually closed. The "how" column names forms as commonly used: CG 20 10 for ongoing-operations additional insured, CG 20 37 for completed operations, CG 24 04 for waiver of subrogation, CG 20 01 for primary and noncontributory, CG 25 03 for a per-project aggregate, CA 20 48 on auto and WC 00 03 13 for the workers' comp waiver. Notice of cancellation is a special case: standard forms notify only the first named insured, so the tool suggests asking for an endorsement that notifies the other party.

Hypothetical: a subcontract wants general liability of $1 million per occurrence and $2 million aggregate, additional insured for ongoing and completed operations, a waiver, primary and noncontributory wording and 3 years of completed operations. Your policy has the limits, ongoing additional insured and the waiver, but no completed operations endorsement, no primary wording, and 2 years of completed operations. The tool reports three gaps and four met requirements.

Assumptions and limits

• Each policy alone. The tool compares one coverage at a time. It does not stack a primary policy and an umbrella to meet a higher requirement, so enter the umbrella under its own heading.
• Forms are examples. Insurers use their own versions and blanket endorsements, so match the contract's wording, not a form number.
• Not modeled: insurer ratings, claims-made dates, deductibles or retentions, defense inside limits, indemnity and hold harmless language, and anything unusual in the contract.
• The contract controls. If the wording is ambiguous, an attorney, not a checklist, should decide what it means. State anti-indemnity laws can limit some requirements. Ask your agent to review the contract before you sign.

A clean result means the numbers you entered match, not that you are protected. Ask the agent for a certificate with the endorsements attached, then review it with the Certificate of insurance (COI) review checklist. Read how to review the insurance requirements in a contract and additional insured endorsements explained for the reasoning, and waiver of subrogation: what it is and when contracts require it for the waiver.