In the insurance industry, the term Certificate Holder is often misunderstood. It’s important to understand the difference between a policyholder, certificate holder, and additional insured in order to ensure that your company has proper insurance coverage for third-party claims.

A Certificate Holder is an entity that receives a proof of insurance from a policyholder as per the terms and conditions of an insurance contract. The certificate holder receives the COI, but does not automatically gain any rights or protections from the policyholder’s insurance.

Typically, a certificate holder is an individual or entity that has a vested interest in the work being performed by the insured. For example, a property owner may require a cleaning company to be named as a Certificate Holder on their general liability insurance in case of an incident at the commercial property such as a customer slipping on a freshly mopped floor.

What Is a Certificate Holder?

While it is common for a certificate holder to be listed as an additional insured on the policy through an added endorsement, this does not necessarily mean that the additional insured will be able to make a claim under the policy. Depending on the wording of the added endorsement, it will be clear as to whether or not the additional insured has access to the policy benefits.

For companies that regularly request certificates of insurance from vendors and contractors, implementing a software solution like myCOI Central helps to reduce the time spent verifying and tracking coverage. By automating this process, you can save your company hours of work and avoid costly gaps in coverage that are often found when manually tracking COIs.