Certificates of Insurance (COI) 101: What is the Additional Insured?

This is an excerpt from a webinar "Waiver DIY: Building an Insurance Exception Sheet for your team". If you review certificates of insurance (COIs) for compliance, this video is for you.
Access the full webinar recording here: landing.getjon...
Additional Insured status extends the protections and benefits of an insurance policy to parties not originally named as insureds in the underlying policy. Additional Insureds are protected under the policy from any claims or lawsuits that might be filed as a result of the named insured’s negligence.
Additional Insured status is typically required when the Named Insured must provide coverage to other parties for new risks that arise from the Named Insured’s connection to the other party’s business operations.
In practice, landlords and property managers tend to require the tenants and vendors they contract with to name them as additional insureds. This protects them from liability claims while, at the same time, helping minimize their loss history and therefore avoid premium increases on their own insurance policies.
This is usually achieved through an Additional Insured endorsement, which functions as an amendment to the underlying policy.
In general, mistakes and small changes in entity names matter in the case of a liability event.
If you see language like “per written contract”, make sure you have a contract!
If the entity names are listed but not marked as additional insureds, this is not acceptable!