Certificate of Insurance: What the GC Is Actually Asking For
The certificate proves; it does not cover. What the contract wants underneath it are endorsements — and in Arkansas one of those is the mechanism a statute expressly leaves standing after it strikes down the clause beside it.
Short Answer
A certificate is proof, not coverage — a summary of policies already in force, conferring nothing on the person holding it. What the contract usually requires sits behind it in endorsements: additional insured status, a waiver of subrogation, and primary and non-contributory wording. Each is a change to the policy, and none of them happens because a certificate says so.
The request arrives as paperwork — send me a certificate — and it is not paperwork. It is a set of contractual conditions, and the document everyone focuses on is the only part of it that changes nothing.
What the Document Is
A certificate summarizes policies on one page: carriers, policy numbers, effective dates, limits. It exists so someone can confirm coverage without reading a policy. The standard form states on its face that it is issued for information only and confers no rights on the certificate holder — a sentence most readers scroll past and which is the entire point of the document.
A photograph, not a contract
It shows the coverage as it stood on the day it was issued. Cancel the policy the following week and the certificate still looks correct; it is simply no longer true. That is why a certificate on file is not the same as coverage in force, and why anyone relying on one for a job of consequence asks for something more durable than a snapshot.
Certificate Holder Is Not Additional Insured
Two things get written on the same page and one of them is a mailing label.
- Certificate holder means the party who receives a copy of the document. It grants nothing. There is no coverage attached to being one.
- Additional insured means a party added to the policy by endorsement, so that the policy can defend and indemnify them for claims arising out of the named insured’s work. It is a real change to the policy and it can affect what the policy costs.
The failure mode is the same every time
The contract requires the owner or general contractor to be named as an additional insured. Somebody asks the agent for a certificate “with the owner on it.” A certificate arrives with the owner in the certificate holder box. It is filed, and everyone treats the requirement as met. No endorsement was issued, so no additional insured coverage exists: the subcontractor is in breach of the contract, and the party who asked holds a document that protects them from nothing. It surfaces at a claim, which is the one moment when the distinction between a mailing label and an endorsement is expensive.
Why Additional Insured Status Carries So Much Weight in Arkansas
The statute strikes the indemnity clause and expressly spares the insurance requirement
Under Ark. Code § 4-56-104, a provision in a construction agreement or construction contract is void and unenforceable as against public policy where it requires an entity or that entity’s insurer to indemnify, defend or hold harmless another entity against liability for death, bodily injury or property damage arising out of the negligence or fault of the indemnitee, its agents, representatives, subcontractors or suppliers. An attempt to escape that by making the contract subject to another state’s law, or by requiring disputes to be heard elsewhere, is void as well. Such a clause is severable — it does not bring the rest of the contract down with it. But the section does not disturb an agreement to name a party as an additional insured. So the indemnity paragraph is limited by statute while the insurance requirement beside it survives, which is a large part of why the additional insured endorsement is the thing general contractors press hardest for.
What the section leaves in place, and what we are not going to characterize
The section still permits a party to be required to indemnify to the extent of its own negligence or fault, and commentary describes the limitation as tied to the degree of fault attributable to the indemnitor. How far the prohibition reaches is characterized inconsistently across secondary sources, some reading it narrowly and others reading the current text more broadly, and the section has been amended since the earlier commentary was written. We publish what the text says and decline to resolve the scope question — that one is for the attorney reading your contract, and a construction contract is worth having read.
The Three Things Behind the Word “Certificate”
- Additional insured status. Extends the liability coverage to the other party for claims arising out of your work. Worth separating ongoing operations from completed operations: coverage that ends when you leave the site may not answer a defect claim years later, which is when construction claims tend to arrive.
- Waiver of subrogation. Ordinarily an insurer that pays a claim may pursue whoever caused it. A waiver gives up that right against a named party in advance, so the insurer pays and cannot recover. Carriers treat it as giving something up, which is why it is not a line you can simply add. And a waiver on the workers’ compensation policy is a different endorsement from one on the general liability policy — contracts frequently require both, and supplying one while the contract asked for the other is a common and quiet failure.
- Primary and non-contributory. Directs that your policy responds first and the other party’s does not contribute. Without it, the argument about who pays what happens while the claim sits.
All three are endorsements, and none of them is a line item
An agent can type additional insured onto a certificate. It will still mean nothing, because the coverage comes from the endorsement rather than the description. A certificate asserting coverage the policy does not contain is not a favor to anyone — it is a document engineered to fail at the only moment it will ever be read closely, and it exposes the person who issued it as well as the parties relying on it.
The Habit That Prevents Most of This
The insurance requirements are in the contract, before signature: limits, additional insured, waivers, sometimes coverages the business does not carry at all. The common sequence is to sign, begin work, and then send the contract to the agent — at which point the available options are to buy coverage that was never priced into the bid, to ask for an amendment from a party with no reason to grant one, or to perform in breach.
- Send the insurance requirements before you sign. One email, and it is the difference between a bid that works and a job that does not. It also converts every question below into something answerable in advance.
- Check the dates first on any certificate you receive. A policy period that does not span the work makes the rest of the page irrelevant.
- Read the contract’s required limits against the certificate’s actual limits. Side by side rather than by assumption. This comparison is the reason the document exists.
- Check who is listed and in which capacity. Certificate holder box or additional insured. If the contract required the latter, look for confirmation of the endorsement rather than a name in a box.
- On work of consequence, ask for the endorsement itself. A certificate referring to an endorsement is weaker evidence than the endorsement. If you are the one hiring subcontractors, you can ask for it as readily as a general contractor can.
Where the subcontractor process lives
If you are hiring subcontractors, their certificates are load-bearing for a reason set out by statute: a prime contractor is liable for compensation to the employees of a subcontractor who failed to secure workers’ compensation. The threshold question — whether the Act reaches your operation at all — is on our workers’ comp requirements page, and the step-by-step process for collecting and checking subcontractor certificates belongs to the workers compensation insurance page, which owns it.
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Frequently Asked Questions
What is a certificate of insurance?
A one-page summary of policies in force, listing carriers, policy numbers, effective dates and limits, used to confirm coverage exists without sharing the policy itself. It is proof rather than coverage: the standard form states on its face that it is issued for information only and confers no rights on the certificate holder.
What is the difference between a certificate holder and an additional insured?
A certificate holder receives a copy of the certificate and gains no coverage from it. An additional insured is added to the policy by endorsement, so the policy can defend and indemnify them for claims arising out of the named insured’s work. A contract requiring additional insured status is not satisfied by listing someone as certificate holder, and that mistake is usually discovered at a claim.
Why do general contractors insist on additional insured status in Arkansas?
Because the statute limits the clause next to it. Under Ark. Code 4-56-104 a construction contract provision is void and unenforceable as against public policy where it requires a party or its insurer to indemnify, defend or hold harmless another party against liability arising out of the negligence or fault of that other party. The section does not disturb an agreement to name a party as an additional insured, so the insurance requirement survives where the indemnity clause is cut back.
Can a hold-harmless clause make my whole contract unenforceable?
No. Under Ark. Code 4-56-104 a clause of that kind is severable from the construction agreement or contract and does not cause the entire agreement to become unenforceable. The section also voids attempts to circumvent it by making the contract subject to another state’s law or by requiring disputes to be resolved in another state.
What is a waiver of subrogation?
An insurer that pays a claim can ordinarily pursue whoever caused it to recover what it paid. A waiver of subrogation gives up that right against a named party in advance. It requires an endorsement rather than a note on a certificate, and a waiver on a workers’ compensation policy is a separate endorsement from one on a general liability policy, so a contract requiring both is not satisfied by either alone.
Can my agent just add additional insured to the certificate?
Not in any way that works. Additional insured status comes from an endorsement on the policy. Typing it into a certificate without the endorsement behind it produces a document that reads correctly and does nothing, and it fails at the moment it is relied on. The endorsement has to exist.
When should I send my contract to my agent?
Before signing. The insurance requirements are in the contract, and discovering after signature that they include limits or coverages you do not carry leaves three poor options: buying coverage that was never in the bid, seeking an amendment from a party with no reason to grant one, or performing in breach.
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Disclaimer: This article is general information and is not insurance, legal, tax or financial advice, and it is not a substitute for the terms of your own agreements or policies. Certificate forms are the property of their publishers and no form text is reproduced here. Endorsement availability, wording, scope and cost vary by carrier, policy form and class of business, and the endorsements actually issued control what is covered. Statutory provisions are summarized in substance rather than reproduced, carry conditions and definitions not fully set out here, and may be amended. Contractual insurance requirements are legal obligations and a construction contract should be reviewed with qualified counsel rather than on the strength of this page. Nothing here is guidance to issue, accept or rely on a certificate that does not accurately reflect coverage in force. Coverage is set by the insurance company and is subject to the terms, conditions and exclusions of the policy actually issued to you, which controls in every case. Cribb Insurance Group Inc is an independent insurance agency licensed in Arkansas, Oklahoma, Missouri and Texas. Reviewed 2026-08-10; insurance law and carrier filings change, and this article may not describe the current position after that date. Cribb Insurance Group Inc, 1601 SW Regional Airport Blvd, Bentonville, AR 72713 · (479) 286-1066 · service@cribbinsurance.com.