How should a GC read the insurance exhibit in a construction contract?

Key takeaways

• Separate insurance requirements from indemnity, defense, warranty, and other contractual duties.
• Record whether a requirement applies to the GC, owner, subcontractors, lower tiers, or a project policy.
• A certificate summarizes selected information and does not create additional-insured status or amend a policy; ACORD's own guidance says only an endorsement, rider, or amendment changes coverage.
• Check limits, aggregates, deductibles, exclusions, completed operations, and the actual endorsement forms together: on ISO forms, ongoing-operations additional-insured status is CG 20 10, completed operations is CG 20 37, the waiver is CG 24 04, primary and noncontributory is CG 20 01, and a per-project aggregate is CG 25 03, each with its own edition and schedule.
• Document exceptions before signature or mobilization instead of treating an unverified certificate as compliance.

Read the exhibit beside the contract and scope

Start with the parties, project description, delivery method, and scope. Identify the owner, developer, GC, construction manager, design professionals, lenders, tenants, and project entities. Then mark who performs work, who controls the site, who employs workers, who owns work in place, and who is expected to buy each policy. A requirement directed to the “contractor” may not describe every entity in the project structure.

Keep the insurance exhibit beside indemnity, defense, warranty, and limitation-of-liability clauses. Insurance can support a contractual allocation but does not automatically make an indemnity enforceable or turn a promise into covered loss. Most states have construction anti-indemnity statutes, several of which also void additional-insured coverage for the indemnitee's sole negligence, and the 2013 and later ISO additional-insured endorsements apply only 'to the extent permitted by law' and no broader than the contract requires, so the exhibit, the indemnity clause, and the project state's statute have to be read together. Public-contract requirements vary as well; do not copy a conclusion from another project.

Sources for this section: International Risk Management Institute (IRMI): Contractual Insurance Requirements and Anti-Indemnity Statutes (Gregory Podolak, July 2016); International Risk Management Institute (IRMI): 2013 ISO Additional Insured Endorsements: Putting the Changes into Context for the Construction Industry (Mark Bell, August 2013); International Risk Management Institute (IRMI): Effective Contractual Risk Transfer in Construction (Ann Hickman, March 2021).

Turn prose into a requirement table

Create one row for each policy or obligation. Capture the required limit and whether it is per occurrence, aggregate, project-specific, or shared; the required deductible or self-insured retention; the parties and status requested; the endorsement or wording; carrier rating or licensing request; notice language; and the period that applies during and after the work.

Add a column for evidence. A declaration page may show a limit, while an endorsement proves a particular additional-insured or waiver grant. The contract may ask for a policy provision that the carrier cannot provide exactly: a request for 'CG 20 10 11 85 or equivalent' asks for a 1985 edition most insurers no longer offer, and a manuscript endorsement drafted by the owner is one most carriers will not attach. Record the gap, proposed alternative, person responsible, and written decision rather than changing a certificate description to make it look compliant.

Sources for this section: International Risk Management Institute (IRMI): Effective Contractual Risk Transfer in Construction (Ann Hickman, March 2021); International Risk Management Institute (IRMI): Additional Insured Endorsements—A Potential Minefield—Part 3 (Craig Stanovich, March 2006).

Compare the requirement with actual policy documents

Obtain the declarations, schedule, relevant forms, endorsements, exclusions, umbrella or excess follow-form wording, and project-specific endorsements. Check named-insured entities, effective dates, classifications, residential or designated-work restrictions, subcontractor conditions, action-over treatment, and the products-completed-operations aggregate. Read “primary and noncontributory,” waiver, and notice provisions as separate questions: on ISO forms each is its own endorsement (CG 20 01 for primary and noncontributory, which applies only where the named insured agreed to it in a written contract; CG 24 04 for the CGL waiver, under which only the insurer's recovery rights are waived), and a follow-form umbrella picks up the primary additional-insured grant only where its own terms do not differ.

For an OCIP or CCIP, identify the enrolled parties, covered work, excluded work, enrollment date, wrap-up limits, completed-operations treatment, deductibles, claims reporting, and gaps retained by the contractor. A wrap-up does not necessarily replace the contractor's annual GL, auto, workers' compensation, professional, pollution, or excess program.

Sources for this section: International Risk Management Institute (IRMI): The 2013 Edition of the CGL Policy (Craig Stanovich, March 2013); International Risk Management Institute (IRMI): Subrogation and the CGL Policy (Craig Stanovich, December 2013); International Risk Management Institute (IRMI): Additional Insured Coverage under Excess Policies (Gregory Podolak, June 2017); New York City Department of Cultural Affairs: CG 20 10 04 13, Additional Insured—Owners, Lessees or Contractors—Scheduled Person or Organization (sample); Independent Insurance Agents of Texas: CG 20 37 04 13, Additional Insured—Owners, Lessees or Contractors—Completed Operations.

Flow requirements down and plan closeout

Use the same table for every subcontract tier, but adjust it to the trade, hazard, contract amount, location, and work actually performed. Require the current subcontract and insurance exhibit before mobilization, collect the certificate and relevant endorsements, calendar expiration dates, and document exceptions. Do not assume that a blanket endorsement applies when its written-contract, scope, or timing conditions are not met; the ACORD 25 certificate states on its face that it confers no rights on the holder and does not amend, extend, or alter the policies it lists.

At closeout, preserve the executed contract, change orders, project insurance records, endorsements, certificates, notices, substantial-completion and acceptance dates, punch-list records, and subcontractor files. Completed-operations additional-insured protection for a period after completion exists only while a CG 20 37-type endorsement is attached to each successive policy, so the closeout file should record how that requirement will be carried at each renewal. The period for retaining records depends on the contract and applicable law. It is not a promise that a policy will respond to a later allegation.

Sources for this section: City of Riverside, California: Sample certificate package: ACORD 25 with CG 20 26 04 13, CG 24 04 05 09, CG 20 01 04 13, CA 04 44, and workers compensation waiver endorsements; ACORD: Certificates of Insurance: Frequently Asked Questions; International Risk Management Institute (IRMI): Questions and Answers on Additional Insured Issues—Part 2 (Jack Gibson, July 2009).

Requirement versus evidence

Sources for this section: International Risk Management Institute (IRMI): Designated construction project general aggregate limit endorsement (glossary entry); New York City Department of Cultural Affairs: CG 20 10 04 13, Additional Insured—Owners, Lessees or Contractors—Scheduled Person or Organization (sample); Independent Insurance Agents of Texas: CG 20 37 04 13, Additional Insured—Owners, Lessees or Contractors—Completed Operations; Saxe Doernberger & Vita (SDV Fenchurch): The 2019 ISO Forms: Additions, Revisions, and Pitfalls (December 2019); Missouri Farm Bureau Insurance (carrier-posted copy of the ISO form): CG 24 04 05 09, Waiver of Transfer of Rights of Recovery Against Others to Us; City of Riverside, California: Sample certificate package: ACORD 25 with CG 20 26 04 13, CG 24 04 05 09, CG 20 01 04 13, CA 04 44, and workers compensation waiver endorsements; International Risk Management Institute (IRMI): The 2013 Edition of the CGL Policy (Craig Stanovich, March 2013); ACORD: Certificates of Insurance: Frequently Asked Questions.

GC insurance-exhibit review

• List all entities, parties, project locations, delivery method, and actual scopes.
• Separate insurance, indemnity, defense, warranty, bond, and safety obligations.
• Map each requested limit, aggregate, deductible, endorsement, status, carrier condition, and period.
• Obtain declarations and endorsements instead of relying on a certificate description.
• Identify OCIP/CCIP enrollment, retained exposures, lower-tier flow-down, and completed-operations requirements.
• Record exceptions and obtain written broker, owner, carrier, and counsel decisions before mobilization.

Hypothetical: Hypothetical — a project-specific aggregate request

An owner asks for a $2 million per-project aggregate and completed-operations additional-insured status. The GC's certificate shows a $2 million general aggregate, but the file lacks the requested endorsement and does not identify whether the project is scheduled. The correct next step is to compare the exhibit with the issued forms and obtain a written resolution, not to infer compliance from the certificate.

Sources

• New York City Department of Cultural Affairs: CG 20 10 04 13, Additional Insured—Owners, Lessees or Contractors—Scheduled Person or Organization (sample) — accessed 2026-10-18; supports the April 2013 edition of CG 20 10: coverage for injury or damage "caused, in whole or in part" by the named insured's acts or omissions in the performance of ongoing operations, the "to the extent permitted by law" and "not broader than required by the contract" provisos, the exclusion for injury or damage after the work is completed or put to its intended use, and the limits paragraph paying the lesser of the contract-required amount and the declarations limit..
• Independent Insurance Agents of Texas: CG 20 37 04 13, Additional Insured—Owners, Lessees or Contractors—Completed Operations — accessed 2026-10-18; supports the April 2013 edition of CG 20 37: coverage for injury or damage "caused, in whole or in part, by 'your work'" at the scheduled location and included in the products-completed operations hazard, with the same "to the extent permitted by law," "not broader than required by the contract," and lesser-of limits provisions as the 2013 CG 20 10..
• Missouri Farm Bureau Insurance (carrier-posted copy of the ISO form): CG 24 04 05 09, Waiver of Transfer of Rights of Recovery Against Others to Us — accessed 2026-10-18; supports the May 2009 edition of CG 24 04: the insurer waives its right of recovery against the scheduled person or organization for payments made for injury or damage arising out of the named insured's ongoing operations or "your work" done under a contract with that person and included in the products-completed operations hazard, and the waiver applies only to the scheduled party..
• City of Riverside, California: Sample certificate package: ACORD 25 with CG 20 26 04 13, CG 24 04 05 09, CG 20 01 04 13, CA 04 44, and workers compensation waiver endorsements — accessed 2026-10-18; supports the ACORD 25 certificate's own notice that it is issued as a matter of information only, confers no rights on the certificate holder, does not amend, extend, or alter the policies, and that additional-insured status or a waiver of subrogation requires a policy endorsement; the package also reproduces CG 20 01 04 13, which makes the CGL primary and noncontributory toward other insurance on which the additional insured is a named insured only where the named insured agreed to that in a written contract, and shows that the general liability, auto, and workers compensation waivers are separate endorsements..
• ACORD: Certificates of Insurance: Frequently Asked Questions — accessed 2026-10-18; supports ACORD's statement that a certificate of insurance is not an insurance policy and does not provide, endorse, amend, extend, or alter policy terms; only an endorsement, rider, or amendment to the policy changes coverage, and a reference to a contract on a certificate does not provide coverage..
• International Risk Management Institute (IRMI): 2013 ISO Additional Insured Endorsements: Putting the Changes into Context for the Construction Industry (Mark Bell, August 2013) — accessed 2026-10-18; supports the edition history of the owners/lessees/contractors additional-insured endorsements: the 1985 'arising out of your work' grant with no ongoing/completed distinction, the 1993 'ongoing operations' limitation, the 2001 completed-operations exclusions and the introduction of CG 20 37, the 2004 'caused, in whole or in part' causation standard, and the 2013 'to the extent permitted by law,' 'not broader than required by contract,' and lesser-of limits provisions, with the anti-indemnity-statute background for those changes..
• International Risk Management Institute (IRMI): Additional Insured Endorsements—A Potential Minefield—Part 3 (Craig Stanovich, March 2006) — accessed 2026-10-18; supports the comparison of CG 20 10 07 04 (which excludes injury or damage occurring after the work is completed or put to its intended use) with CG 20 37 07 04 (which provides completed-operations additional-insured coverage), and the observation that CG 20 37 can be difficult to obtain and that the 11 85 edition of CG 20 10 is generally no longer available..
• International Risk Management Institute (IRMI): Questions and Answers on Additional Insured Issues—Part 2 (Jack Gibson, July 2009) — accessed 2026-10-18; supports that a certificate of insurance confers no coverage, that completed-operations additional-insured coverage for a post-completion period requires an endorsement such as CG 20 37 on each successive policy during that period, and that anti-indemnity statutes in some states limit the additional-insured coverage a contract may require..
• International Risk Management Institute (IRMI): Additional Insured Coverage under Excess Policies (Gregory Podolak, June 2017) — accessed 2026-10-18; supports that a follow-form excess or umbrella policy follows the primary policy's additional-insured terms only to the extent its own terms do not differ, and that primary-and-noncontributory and waiver-of-subrogation terms often do not carry to the excess layer without a specific endorsement..
• International Risk Management Institute (IRMI): Contractual Insurance Requirements and Anti-Indemnity Statutes (Gregory Podolak, July 2016) — accessed 2026-10-18; supports the count of states with construction anti-indemnity statutes (46 as of the article) and the examples of states whose statutes also void additional-insured coverage for the indemnitee's sole negligence (Arizona, Colorado, Georgia, Kansas, Montana, and Oregon)..
• International Risk Management Institute (IRMI): The 2013 Edition of the CGL Policy (Craig Stanovich, March 2013) — accessed 2026-10-18; supports that CG 20 01 applies only if the named insured agreed to primary and noncontributory terms in a written contract or agreement, and that its practical effect is to let 'primary and noncontributory' be shown on a certificate because the unendorsed ISO CGL does not use that phrase..
• International Risk Management Institute (IRMI): Subrogation and the CGL Policy (Craig Stanovich, December 2013) — accessed 2026-10-18; supports that the CGL policy's operative wording is the Transfer of Rights of Recovery Against Others to Us condition, that the waiver endorsement is titled Waiver of Transfer of Rights of Recovery Against Others to Us (CG 24 04 05 09), and that under it only the insurer, not the named insured, waives rights of recovery against the scheduled party..
• International Risk Management Institute (IRMI): Designated construction project general aggregate limit endorsement (glossary entry) — accessed 2026-10-18; supports that the ISO designated construction project general aggregate limit endorsement is CG 25 03, that it makes the general aggregate apply separately to each designated project, that it does not affect the products-completed operations aggregate, and that a separate designated-project products-completed operations aggregate endorsement exists..
• International Risk Management Institute (IRMI): Effective Contractual Risk Transfer in Construction (Ann Hickman, March 2021) — accessed 2026-10-18; supports that ISO CG 20 10 (ongoing operations) and CG 20 37 (completed operations) are the standard owner/upstream-contractor additional-insured endorsements; that many contractors cannot provide the broader coverage of prior editions, notably the 11 85 edition of CG 20 10; that insurers resist manuscript additional-insured endorsements; and that CG 20 01 makes coverage primary and noncontributory when a written contract requires it..
• Saxe Doernberger & Vita (SDV Fenchurch): The 2019 ISO Forms: Additions, Revisions, and Pitfalls (December 2019) — accessed 2026-10-18; supports the December 2019 ISO revisions: the restated limits wording in the additional-insured endorsements including CG 20 10 and CG 20 37, the new automatic completed-operations additional-insured endorsements CG 20 39 and CG 20 40 and their written-contract condition, and the revised CG 24 04 and new automatic waiver endorsement CG 24 53..
• U.S. Federal Acquisition Regulation: FAR 52.228-5, Insurance—Work on a Government Installation — accessed 2026-09-13; supports A federal contract clause example showing that government contracts can specify insurance obligations; the particular solicitation and contract control..