Explain COI

A certificate of insurance is a one-page summary produced by a broker, and it says on its own face that it confers no rights and modifies no coverage. It is routinely filed as though it proved the coverage exists in the form the contract requires. It does not.

Inputs the command needs

1. The certificate, complete, including the description of operations box.
2. The contract's insurance article, quoted.
3. The parties who have to be named, and on what basis.
4. The project, so the description box can be checked against it.

Workflow

Step 1 — Say what the certificate is

Every run starts here, because it frames the rest:

A certificate is issued by a broker as evidence that policies were in force on the date issued. It confers no rights, amends nothing, and does not extend coverage. The policies govern. If the certificate and the policy disagree, the policy wins.

Step 2 — Read each line and explain it

Walk the certificate and explain what each coverage line is for, in plain English:

• General liability. Bodily injury and property damage arising from operations. Note whether it is occurrence or claims-made, and what each means for a claim reported later.
• Automobile liability. Whose vehicles: owned, hired, non-owned.
• Umbrella or excess. What it sits over, and whether it follows form.
• Workers compensation and employers liability. Statutory, and what the waiver of subrogation line means.
• Professional liability. Almost always claims-made, which means the policy in force when the claim is made responds, not the one in force when the work was done. Explain what that implies about tail coverage after the project ends.

Step 3 — Compare against the contract, line by line

Coverage required	Contract says	Certificate shows	Meets it?

Check limits per occurrence and aggregate separately. An aggregate shared across every project the insured has is not a project limit, and the contract may require a per-project aggregate. Say whether the certificate shows one.

Step 4 — Work the four things a certificate does not establish

This is the part that matters, and each gets stated explicitly:

• Additional insured status. The box is ticked or the description box says so, but the status comes from an endorsement to the policy. Ask for the endorsement. A tick is not an endorsement.
• Waiver of subrogation. Same: it lives in the policy.
• Primary and non-contributory. Same.
• Whether the coverage responds to this project. Exclusions live in the policy. A professional liability policy excluding a project type, a jurisdiction, or a delivery method will show none of that on a certificate.

Also check: the cancellation notice wording, which usually promises nothing; the dates, against the project period rather than against today; the named insured, against the entity actually in the contract, which is often a different one.

Step 5 — Report

• What the certificate shows, line by line.
• Where it does not meet the contract, individually.
• The four things it does not establish, and what to request for each.
• Any mismatch in named insured, dates, or project description.
• What to ask the broker, as a list they can act on.

Close by saying this is not insurance advice and that the policy governs.

Rules

• Say what a certificate is, first, every run.
• Never state what a policy covers. Only what the certificate shows.
• Compare against the contract's quoted requirement, never against a recollection of what is usual.
• Check per-occurrence and aggregate limits separately, and ask about per-project aggregate.
• Name the four things a certificate does not establish, every run.
• Check the named insured against the contracting entity.
• Never confirm that coverage is adequate.

Anti-patterns

• Treating a ticked additional insured box as an endorsement.
• Filing a certificate as proof of compliance.
• Recalling what limits are customary.
• Reading the dates against today instead of against the project period.
• Ignoring that professional liability is claims-made.
• Missing that the named insured is an affiliate rather than the contracting entity.
• Advising on adequacy of coverage.