Adding additional insureds to a Liability policy is a common request in the construction industry. It’s so common, in fact, that the Insurance Services Office (ISO), the organization which develops many of the standard insurance coverage forms in the marketplace, has created an endorsement for Liability policies that adds additional insureds on a blanket basis.
Before these endorsements, contractors had to add a new endorsement to their Liability policy for each additional insured. When a contractor had to add multitudes of additional insureds, the avalanche of paperwork became a burdensome task, particularly for smaller firms.
The blanket approach replaced the multitude of endorsements with a single attachment by changing the endorsement wording. A typical additional insured endorsement employs this (or similar) wording: “Who Is an Insured (Section II) is amended to include as an insured the person or organization shown in the Schedule.” In the ISO blanket endorsement (CG 20 33 10 01), the wording reads: “Section II — Who Is an Insured is amended to include as an insured any person or organization for whom you are performing operations when you and such person or organization have agreed in writing in a contract or agreement that such person or organization be added as an additional insured on your policy.”
A word of caution about using the blanket approach: Although the endorsement greatly simplifies the process of adding additional insureds by removing the requirement to name each one, it makes this inclusion contingent on a written contract or agreement stating that the additional insured must be added to the contractor’s policy. So, when using the blanket endorsement, be sure to keep copies of the contract, which provides the necessary written agreement to avoid any conflicts over insured status at the time of a claim.
If you have other questions about additional insureds, or any other endorsements to make certain your Liability coverage continues to meet your needs, please feel free to get in touch with us.
