ACORD 25 explained, section by section
8 min read
Reviewed by Chance Sowers, AFIS, CEO of AInsure
The ACORD 25 is the standard Certificate of Liability Insurance — a one-page summary of someone’s coverage as it stood on the day the form was issued. It is produced by ACORD, a non-profit standards body, and it is the form nearly every certificate in the United States uses.
Because the layout is identical everywhere, learning it once means you can read any certificate you are ever handed. This walks the form from top to bottom.
The header, and the disclaimer nobody reads
The top of the form carries a block of small text that does more work than the rest of the page. In substance, it says three things: the certificate is issued as a matter of information only and confers no rights on the holder; it does not amend, extend or alter the coverage described; and if the holder is to be an additional insured, that depends on the policy’s own terms and endorsements.
The parties: producer, insured, insurers
Producer
The agency or brokerage that issued the certificate, with contact details. This is who you call to confirm a certificate is real — using a number you look up independently, not the one printed here.
Insured
The entity that owns the policies. Check this against your contract character by character. A certificate for a parent, an affiliate or a DBA is one of the most common failures, and it usually is not deliberate — it is just the wrong entity on file.
Insurers A–F, and NAIC numbers
Each carrier is lettered, and each coverage line below references its letter. The NAIC number identifies the insurer. Two things are worth checking: that the number matches the carrier named beside it, and that the carrier is admitted in the relevant state — or, if it is surplus lines, that you understand why.
The coverages table
The body of the form. Each row is a policy, with its number, effective and expiration dates, and limits.
| Row | What it covers | What to check |
|---|---|---|
| Commercial General Liability | Third-party bodily injury and property damage. | Each-occurrence and general-aggregate limits, and whether the aggregate applies per project. A shared aggregate can be exhausted by someone else’s claim before yours. |
| Automobile Liability | Vehicles used in the business. | Whether it covers any auto, or only owned, hired or non-owned — the checkboxes matter if anyone drives to your site. |
| Umbrella / Excess | Additional limits above the underlying policies. | Which policies it actually sits above. Excess coverage that does not follow the line you care about adds nothing. |
| Workers’ Compensation | Employee injury, plus employer’s liability. | Whether owners or officers are excluded, and whether that leaves people on your site uncovered. |
Two columns are easy to skim past and worth pausing on. ADDL INSD indicates whether an additional insured endorsement applies to that line, and SUBR WVD whether a waiver of subrogation does. A tick in either is a claim that an endorsement exists — not the endorsement itself.
Description of operations
The free-text box, and the most contractually significant part of the form. It is where additional insured status, waivers of subrogation, primary and non-contributory wording, project names and endorsement form numbers are recorded.
It is also the part most often wrong, because it is typed by hand. Two rules make it usable:
- Absence is meaningful. If your contract requires additional insured status and this box does not mention it, assume you do not have it.
- Presence is not proof. Text here describes endorsements that should exist on the policy. If the stakes justify the requirement, ask for the endorsement itself.
Certificate holder, and the cancellation clause
The certificate holder box records who the certificate was issued to. It is an address, not a grant of coverage — the single most consequential misreading of the form, covered in certificate holder vs additional insured.
Beneath it sits the cancellation language. Current versions of the form do not promise you notice: they say notice will be delivered in accordance with the policy provisions, and most policies owe that notice to the named insured rather than to certificate holders. Older forms used softer “endeavour to” wording that was widely read as a promise it never was.
Practically: if the policy behind a certificate is cancelled, nobody is obliged to tell you. The certificate in your file will look exactly as it did the day it arrived.
What the form cannot do
- Prove itself. It carries no signature or seal, so nothing on the page distinguishes a genuine certificate from an edited one.
- Tell you about today. It describes the position when it was issued.
- Show you exclusions. A one-page summary cannot convey the endorsements and conditions that decide most claims.
ACORD publishes and maintains these forms; the authoritative version of any form is ACORD’s own. This article explains how to read one, not how to complete one, and nothing here is a substitute for advice from a licensed agent or your own counsel on a specific contract.