Additional Insured for Contractors: Certificates, Endorsements, and Blanket vs. Scheduled (2026)

An additional insured is a person or business added to your liability policy so a claim against them arising from your work is defended under your coverage. For contractors, that party is almost always the general contractor or property owner you signed with. Making it real takes an endorsement attached to your policy, not a certificate.

Here is what that endorsement actually does, why a certificate is not the same thing, and how a subcontractor chooses between blanket and scheduled wording. Getting it right is a quiet part of solid contractor insurance.

What does additional insured mean on a contractor's policy?

Additional insured status means another party is covered under your liability policy for claims that arise from your work. On a contractor's policy it is added by an endorsement to your General Liability coverage. That lets the general contractor tap your limits instead of their own when your crew causes the injury or damage behind a claim.

A general contractor requires additional insured status so your policy responds first when your work is the cause. The additional insured shares your limits and does not get a separate pot of money. A framing sub on a $2M mixed-use job, for instance, might name the GC on the policy and find both parties drawing on the same $1M per-occurrence limit once a claim lands.

Since the 2019 ISO revisions, most additional insured endorsements cap coverage at the lesser of what the contract requires or your policy limit, per IRMI.

Does a certificate of insurance make someone an additional insured?

No. A certificate of insurance only proves coverage exists; it does not add anyone to your policy. Listing the general contractor as a certificate holder gives them a copy of the document, but no policy rights, and any cancellation notice depends on the policy's own terms. Additional insured status comes only from an endorsement attached to the policy.

A certificate holder can only confirm you carry insurance, whereas an additional insured actually has coverage under the policy for a covered claim. The two get confused because the same certificate of insurance often lists both a holder and any additional insureds in separate boxes.

Vendors and suppliers dealing with a retailer face the same request from a different angle, which the additional insured checklist for retail partners covers.

Blanket vs scheduled additional insured: which should a subcontractor get?

A scheduled additional insured endorsement names each party individually by legal name and address. A blanket endorsement automatically covers anyone you are required to add by written contract. A subcontractor adding many general contractors usually wants blanket; one with a single ongoing relationship can use scheduled.

Scheduled endorsements often run a nominal amount for each party, illustrative and carrier-dependent, typically around $25 to $75 each. A blanket endorsement is usually a single annual charge, often $50 to $200, and some carriers fold it in at no extra cost. Blanket wording varies by carrier, so two policies with the same form number can cover different things, a caution Amwins raises about these forms. A drywall sub adding 15 or more GCs a year switched from scheduled to blanket after naming each one started holding up job starts.

Why does my endorsement need to cover completed operations?

Completed-operations coverage matters because a standard CG 20 10 endorsement only protects the additional insured while your work is ongoing and ends when the job does. Construction-defect claims often surface years after a project finishes. So the general contractor needs a scheduled CG 20 37 to stay covered after your crew leaves the site. The blanket forms, CG 20 33 and CG 20 38, both cover ongoing operations only, so a blanket endorsement alone will not carry completed-operations coverage.

Older editions of CG 20 10 once reached completed operations, but ISO removed it, which is exactly why CG 20 37 exists as a separate endorsement, per IRMI. Carriers do not add CG 20 37 just because CG 20 10 is on the policy; you request it on purpose.

Picture a concrete sub who pours a foundation, closes out the job, and moves on. Two years later a crack surfaces and the owner sues the general contractor over the defect. If the sub carried only CG 20 10, the GC's additional insured coverage ended the day that job wrapped, so nothing responds. A CG 20 37 would have kept the GC covered for that later claim.

What else does the contract require alongside additional insured?

Most general-contractor contracts require three things together: name the GC as additional insured, add primary and non-contributory wording, and include a waiver of subrogation. Each is a separate endorsement. Additional insured status alone does not make your policy pay first or stop your insurer from later pursuing the general contractor.

Primary and non-contributory wording, added by the CG 20 01 endorsement, does two jobs. It makes your policy pay first, and it keeps the GC's insurer from being forced to chip in, per IRMI.

A waiver of subrogation is the third piece, and it stops your insurer from turning around and suing the general contractor to recover what it paid on a claim. Without the waiver, a covered loss can become a lawsuit between two parties who were supposed to be on the same side.

Coverwatch reads the insurance section of a contractor's contract and confirms all three endorsements, the additional insured, the primary and non-contributory wording, and the waiver, were actually issued and match what the contract demands. That check keeps a subcontractor from relying on a certificate that added no one.