Read the insurance section of almost any construction contract and you'll find the same phrase: additional insured coverage "on a primary and noncontributory basis." It's so common it reads like boilerplate. It isn't. It decides whose insurance pays first when a contractor's work causes a loss, and whose loss history takes the hit.

What it means

IRMI describes primary and noncontributory as a term used in contract insurance requirements to set the order in which multiple policies covering the same loss respond. Split it in two:

• Primary: the contractor's policy responds first to a covered claim against the additional insured, before the additional insured's own policy.
• Noncontributory: the contractor's policy doesn't ask the additional insured's own insurance to chip in.

Without it, a general liability policy's "other insurance" condition can treat the GC's or owner's own policy as sharing the loss. That's exactly what the contract was written to avoid.

Where it comes from

Like additional insured status, primary and noncontributory is created by policy wording, not by the certificate. A checked box or a note in the description of operations on an ACORD 25 doesn't change the policy.

In 2013 ISO introduced an optional endorsement for it, CG 20 01, "Primary and Noncontributory, Other Insurance Condition." As Claims Journal explained at the time, it was added because so many construction contracts require additional insured coverage on a primary and noncontributory basis. Many carriers use it or their own version, and some blanket additional insured endorsements build similar wording in.

The fine print that trips people up

CG 20 01 comes with two conditions. It applies only when the additional insured is a named insured on another policy, and only when a written contract requires the contractor's coverage to be primary and noncontributory. Missing contract language means missing coverage.

It also amends the general liability policy only. If your project requirements call for primary and noncontributory umbrella or excess coverage, the umbrella needs to say so in its own wording. With umbrella rates still rising, it's an easy gap to miss.

What to check on a contractor COI

1. Confirm the project requirements actually call for primary and noncontributory, and on which policies (general liability, auto, umbrella).
2. Ask for the endorsement, not just the certificate. Note the form number and edition.
3. Check that it covers the parties your requirements name: owner, lender, GC, others.
4. Check the umbrella or excess policy separately when the requirements extend to it.
5. Recheck at renewal. Endorsements change when policies renew, and forms keep evolving. "Evolving insurance endorsements" were the backdrop for Cullen and Dykman's session on additional insured endorsements at IRMI's 2026 Construction Risk Conference.

It's one line in the contract and one endorsement on the policy. Forsured checks both on every contractor COI, against each project's requirements, for the life of the job.

This week Forsured showed up at IRMI's Construction Risk Conference at the Gaylord National in National Harbor. It was our first CRC. We weren't on the sponsor list and we didn't have a booth. We had orange polos, an independent field guide to the conference, a short video about catching the COI gap, and one question for everyone we met: what happens to a contractor COI after it's filed?

The answers were consistent enough that we want to share them. Nobody below is named, because these were hallway conversations, not interviews.

1. Too many red alerts, not enough answers

The complaint we heard most came from people already paying for COI tracking. Their tools flag everything. Certificates get rejected over small formatting issues, contractors get frustrated, and the alerts that matter (a lapsed policy, an umbrella below the project requirement, an additional insured endorsement without completed operations) get lost in the noise.

What they want is a review that reads the certificate and the endorsements the way a risk manager would, ranks what actually exposes the project, and says why.

2. Brokers want data for renewals

Brokers told us the same thing in different words: show me what my client's contracts actually required last year, and how often their contractors fell short. With umbrella and excess rates still rising (WTW expects another 5% to 15% in 2027), walking into a renewal with that data is worth more than another stack of certificates.

3. Carriers care how contractors manage the trades they hire

Underwriters are paying attention to contractor management. Carrier teams we spoke with were interested in tools they could point their construction insureds to, because a contractor that checks every COI against project requirements is a better risk.

4. Big projects are still run on spreadsheets

Some of the largest projects represented at CRC still track contractor insurance in spreadsheets and inboxes. Certificates arrive in different formats from different countries, and the people responsible know they can't see the whole picture.

5. The words matter

We came in using the general contractor's shorthand for the paperwork. By the end of day 1 we'd switched to "project requirements" and "contractor COIs." The neutral wording works for general contractors, trade contractors and owners alike, and it describes the real job: every contractor, checked against what the project requires.

What's next

We're following up with everyone who asked to see Forsured on their own paperwork. If we didn't get to meet you at the Gaylord, the offer is the same: a free COI risk check, no strings attached. Send one project's requirements and a contractor COI or two to hello@forsured.ai, and we'll walk you through every gap we find.

We'll also keep writing here every weekday about what's moving in construction insurance and contractor COI compliance. Thank you to IRMI and everyone in National Harbor who stopped to talk.

Every general contractor has a folder of contractor COIs. Most of them have been looked at once, by someone in a hurry, at the moment the contractor was onboarded. The certificate was there, the boxes were checked, and the work started.

That folder feels like protection. It usually isn't, at least not the way people assume.

What a certificate of insurance actually is

IRMI defines a certificate of insurance as a document providing evidence that certain general types of insurance have been bought, along with the types of coverage and limits. That is the whole job of the document: evidence, on the day it was issued.

The standard ACORD 25 certificate says so on its face. It is "issued as a matter of information only and confers no rights upon the certificate holder," and it does not amend, extend or alter the coverage of the policies listed. If the certificate and the policy disagree, the policy wins.

Where the gap hides

The endorsements. Additional insured status, waivers of subrogation and primary and noncontributory wording are created by endorsements on the contractor's policy. A checked "ADDL INSD" box on a certificate is not the endorsement. And endorsement forms keep changing, a point Cullen and Dykman's Christopher Ruggiero made in his session on decoding additional insured endorsements at IRMI's 2026 Construction Risk Conference: the coverage you negotiate in the contract only holds if the endorsement on the policy matches it.

The dates. Policies lapse, get cancelled for nonpayment and renew with new terms. A contractor COI that cleared prequalification in March can be out of compliance by July, and nobody finds out until there's a claim.

The limits. Project requirements often call for higher umbrella limits than a contractor carries on its standard program. With umbrella and excess rates still climbing (WTW expects another 5% to 15% in 2027), that is exactly the line where contractors trim.

The fine print in the requirements themselves. Owners and lenders write requirements that differ project to project. A certificate that satisfies one job can fail the next one across the street.

What to check instead

1. Start from the project's requirements, not a generic checklist. Each project has its own limits, endorsements and wording.
2. Compare every contractor COI against those requirements line by line: coverage types, limits, policy dates, and the named insured matching the contracting entity.
3. Ask for the endorsements that the requirements depend on, and read the form numbers and wording, not just the box on the certificate.
4. Track expirations and renewals so a policy that changes mid-project gets reviewed again.
5. When something's missing, bring the contractor's broker into the fix early, while it's a paperwork problem and not a claim.

Why it matters more now

Carriers notice. WTW's 2027 construction outlook says underwriters give favorable consideration to contractors with strong management of the trade partners they hire. A file full of unchecked certificates says the opposite.

That's the work Forsured does: check each contractor COI against your project requirements, flag the gaps, and keep checking for the life of the job.

Day 2 at IRMI's Construction Risk Conference is a wrap. Three things we were digging into on Tuesday.

1. The endorsement is the contract's last line of defense

Tuesday opened with "Decoding Additional Insured Endorsements for Successful Contractual Risk Transfer," led by Christopher Ruggiero, partner and construction litigation chair at Cullen and Dykman. His preview made a point every GC should hear: as claim costs rise, the indemnity and additional insured coverage you negotiate is harder to secure, because the endorsement forms keep changing.

The coverage you negotiated only holds if the endorsement on the contractor's policy actually matches your project requirements. A checked box on a COI doesn't tell you that. The form number and its wording do.

2. Prequalification is a snapshot. Insurance is a moving target.

"The Prequalification Puzzle" was on Tuesday's agenda, and it's a good reminder of how much happens after a contractor clears prequal. A contractor COI that passed in March can be out of compliance by July. Policies renew with new terms, lapse for nonpayment and get re-endorsed mid-project.

Prequalification answers "can this firm do the work?" It was never built to answer "is this firm covered today, for this project?"

3. Insurance data you can't search is its own risk

Contractor COIs sitting as PDFs in an inbox can't be trended, audited or shared with your broker or carrier when renewal comes around. "When Data Becomes Risk" was on the afternoon agenda, and that's the version of it we see most: the information exists, but nobody can answer a simple question like "which of our active contractors carry less umbrella than the job requires?"

Structured COI data turns that into a two-minute answer, and it's the same data a carrier wants to see when it asks how you manage the trades you hire.

If you want that answer for one of your own projects, start with one project's requirements and a contractor COI or two.

The International Risk Management Institute (IRMI) has picked American Global, a construction and infrastructure risk and insurance brokerage, to rewrite its long-running Design-Build Risk and Insurance guide. The team includes Caryn Maxfield, Ante Petricevic, François Wasselin and Giovanni Bach, with IRMI's Megan Jolly editing, according to the October 23 announcement.

What the update covers

The rewrite is meant to catch up with how design-build is delivered today, including progressive design-build. It covers contractual risk allocation, indemnification, limits of liability, professional liability insurance, project-specific coverage and bonding.

Why it matters for contractor COIs

Design-build shifts design responsibility to the builder's side of the contract. That has a direct effect on what a compliant contractor COI looks like:

• Professional liability enters the picture. A design-builder, and any trade contractor doing delegated design on mechanical, electrical, structural steel or curtain wall scopes, may need professional liability that a general liability policy won't provide.
• Requirements differ by role. The same project can need different coverage from a designer, a design-builder and a build-only trade contractor. One template for every firm misses that.
• Project-specific programs change the checklist. When an owner or contractor buys project-specific coverage, contractor COIs have to be checked against what the program does and doesn't cover.

WTW's 2027 outlook expects contractor's professional liability to run flat to up 5% on annual programs and flat to up 10% on project-specific policies, so the coverage is available. The job is making sure the contractors who need it actually carry it, at the limits the project requires.

IRMI's guides are a standard reference for construction risk teams, and this one is worth reading when it lands.

Most COI reviews fail for one reason: the certificate gets checked against a generic template instead of the requirements of the project the contractor is actually working on. Here is the checklist we use, in order.

Before you open the certificate

Pull the insurance section of the contract or the project's insurance requirements exhibit. Write down, for this project:

• Each required coverage (general liability, auto, workers' compensation and employer's liability, umbrella or excess, and anything trade-specific like professional or pollution liability)
• The minimum limit for each, including whether umbrella must follow form
• Required endorsements: additional insured (ongoing and completed operations), waiver of subrogation, primary and noncontributory
• Who must be named as additional insured: owner, lender, GC, others
• How long completed operations coverage must be maintained after the job

The five checks

1. Named insured

The named insured on the certificate should match the legal entity on the contract. A parent company, a DBA or a sister company is a gap until someone confirms the right entity is covered.

2. Coverages and limits

Compare every line against the requirements. Umbrella and excess is where shortfalls show up most, because project requirements often call for more than a trade contractor carries on its standard program.

3. Policy dates

Every policy should be in force for the work. Note each expiration date, and plan to recheck before it, not after.

4. Endorsements

A box on the certificate is not an endorsement. When the contract requires additional insured status, a waiver of subrogation or primary and noncontributory wording, ask for the endorsement forms and read them. Check that additional insured coverage includes completed operations when the contract requires it. Endorsement forms change often, so the form number matters.

5. Certificate holder and description

The certificate holder should be correct, and the description of operations should reference the project or the contract where your requirements ask for it.

When you find a gap

Send the contractor's broker the specific requirement that isn't met, quoted from the project requirements, and the line on the certificate or endorsement that falls short. Specific asks get fixed in days. Vague ones ("please send an updated COI") come back with the same certificate.

Keep it current

A COI review is only as good as its date. Recheck when a policy renews, when a certificate is reissued, and ahead of every expiration. On a long project that means continuous monitoring, which is what Forsured does for every contractor on every active project.

Day 1 at IRMI's Construction Risk Conference in National Harbor is in the books. Here are the three things that stuck with us from Monday, and what each one means for anyone collecting contractor COIs.

1. Margins are thin, and bids are crowded

Anirban Basu, chief economist at Associated Builders and Contractors, opened CRC's Monday general session. His recent numbers, reported by Construction Dive, set the tone: projects that once drew two to four bids are now drawing as many as 12 to 16, and about 32% of contractors surveyed expect profit margins to decline over the next year, up from 26% in July.

When the low bid wins, a contractor's insurance gap isn't a paperwork problem. It's a margin problem. A trade contractor that trimmed its umbrella to sharpen a number is the one whose gap lands back on the GC's program after a loss.

2. Umbrella is where the pain is

WTW expects umbrella and excess rates for construction to rise another 5% to 15% in 2027, the same range it gives auto liability, while general liability runs flat to up 10%.

A broker we sat down with asked for something simple: show me how many of last year's contracts required a high umbrella limit, so I can walk into renewal with data instead of guesses. That data exists in every GC's contractor COI file. It just isn't searchable when the certificates are PDFs in an inbox.

3. Contractor management is becoming an underwriting factor

WTW's outlook says carriers give favorable underwriting consideration to firms with strong management of the trades they hire, alongside loss experience and fleet controls. "When Compliance Isn't Coverage" was on Monday's agenda for a reason: a contractor COI in a file isn't proof of coverage, and underwriters know it.

For a GC, that turns COI review from back-office cleanup into something you can show a carrier at renewal: every contractor checked against project requirements, every gap tracked to a fix.

Want to see what your own contractor COI file would tell a carrier? That's what our free COI risk check is for.

WTW published its Insurance Marketplace Realities 2027 report for construction on October 1. The headline for anyone managing contractor COIs: most lines are steady, and the expensive one keeps getting more expensive.

The outlook by line

Umbrella has been the pressure point for years

This isn't new. Back in 2021, ENR reported that umbrella and excess renewals were costing contractors 50% to 100% more, as carriers raised prices, cut limits and raised attachment points. Rates have cooled since then, but umbrella keeps rising faster than the rest of the program.

Why that shows up in your contractor COIs

Project requirements rarely bend to the market. If the contract calls for a $10 million umbrella, it calls for $10 million whether the trade contractor's renewal went up 5% or 15%.

Put that next to a bidding market where, as Construction Dive reported from ABC's Anirban Basu, jobs that once drew 2 to 4 bids are drawing 12 to 16. Thin margins and rising umbrella costs push in the same direction: carry less, and hope nobody checks.

So check umbrella first. On every contractor COI, confirm the umbrella or excess limit meets the project requirement, that it follows form over the underlying policies the contract requires, and that it won't expire before the work is done.

The upside at your own renewal

WTW notes that carriers give favorable underwriting consideration to strong management of the trades a firm hires. A record showing every contractor checked against project requirements, with each gap tracked to a fix, is the kind of evidence an underwriter can use. A folder of unread certificates isn't.