Additional Insured Endorsements and Contractual Risk Transfer for Contractors in 2026

Every construction contract you sign contains a quiet transaction that has nothing to do with the work itself. Somewhere in the insurance article, you agree to name another party as an additional insured on your general liability policy—or you require your subcontractors to name you. That single requirement, repeated up and down a project, is how liability actually moves through a job. Understanding the mechanics is not paperwork. It is control over where a claim eventually lands.

Two Forms for Two Phases of a Project

The two endorsements that do most of the work are ISO forms CG 20 10 and CG 20 37. They are not interchangeable, and treating them as if they were is one of the more common and expensive mistakes on a project. CG 20 10 extends additional insured status for ongoing operations—liability arising while the work is in progress. CG 20 37 extends status for the products-completed operations hazard—liability that surfaces after the work is finished and the crew has left the site.

The gap matters because construction defect claims rarely arrive during construction. They arrive years later, when a roof leaks or a foundation settles. If a general contractor secured only CG 20 10 from a subcontractor, the additional insured protection may have evaporated the moment the project reached completion. A disciplined risk transfer program requires both forms, so coverage follows the exposure across the full life of the work.

Blanket Endorsements, Scheduled Endorsements, and the 2013 Editions

Additional insured status can be granted two ways. A scheduled endorsement names a specific person or organization on the form. A blanket—or automatic—endorsement grants status to any party "when you have agreed in a written contract or agreement" to do so. Blanket forms are efficient because they cover every upstream party a contract requires without a new endorsement for each one. They are also where the fine print lives.

In 2013, ISO revised its additional insured endorsements in two ways that reshaped how much protection actually transfers. First, the forms carry forward the "caused, in whole or in part" standard—coverage applies to injury or damage caused by the named insured's acts or omissions, a narrower trigger than the older "arising out of" language. Second, the 2013 editions added that coverage "only applies to the extent permitted by law" and "will not be broader than that which you are required by the contract to provide." In plain terms, the endorsement now reads itself against the contract and against the statute. You cannot receive more coverage than your contract required, and you cannot receive coverage the law forbids.

The Limits the Statute Imposes

That second restriction points directly at anti-indemnity statutes, which many states have enacted to keep risk transfer from becoming risk laundering. Tennessee's statute, Tenn. Code Ann. § 62-6-123, voids any construction agreement that purports to indemnify a party against liability "caused by or resulting from the sole negligence" of that party. You cannot contract your way into being held harmless for damage you alone caused. Many states go further and bar indemnity for the promisee's own partial negligence.

The practical consequence is that a broadly worded indemnity clause is only as strong as the statute allows. When your contract language and your insurance endorsements outrun what the law will enforce, the transfer you thought you purchased quietly narrows. Reading the indemnity clause and the additional insured endorsement together—against the governing state's statute—is where real exposure gets uncovered.

Certificates Are Not Coverage

The certificate of insurance is the document most contractors actually collect, and it is the one that proves the least. An ACORD 25 states plainly on its face that it is "issued as a matter of information only" and "confers no rights upon the certificate holder." It does not amend, extend, or alter the policy. A certificate can show that an additional insured endorsement was requested; it cannot create one. The only proof that coverage exists is the endorsement itself—so a disciplined program collects the actual endorsement forms, not just the certificate that gestures at them.

Two companion requirements complete the structure. A primary and non-contributory endorsement (commonly CG 20 01) ensures the subcontractor's policy responds first, before yours contributes. A waiver of subrogation stops the subcontractor's insurer from turning around and suing you to recover what it paid. Together with the two additional insured forms, they form the four-part spine of downstream risk transfer—and in the current underwriting environment, carriers are scrutinizing each of them more closely than they did a few years ago.

Managing this well is not a one-time act of signing. It is the discipline of verifying, on every contract, that the endorsements match the obligations—which is precisely how we approach it. Our four-step Strategic Process—Strategic Discovery, Risk Assessment, Solution Design, and Ongoing Optimization—is built to keep contract language, statute, and endorsement forms aligned as your work and your subcontractor roster change. A single torch throws more light when you know exactly where to point it. That is the intent here: to illuminate where your risk transfer holds and where it quietly leaks.

— Ryan Mefford, President & Risk Advisor