ACORD 25
The standard certificate of liability insurance form used across the US insurance industry to evidence general liability, auto, umbrella, and excess coverage.
What It Is
The ACORD 25, titled Certificate of Liability Insurance, is the standardized form used by the US insurance industry to provide evidence of liability coverage to third parties. It contains sections for the producer (broker) information, the insured's name and address, insurer information, coverage details for commercial general liability, automobile liability, umbrella/excess liability, and workers compensation.
The form includes fields for policy numbers, effective and expiration dates, limits of insurance, and whether the policy includes additional insured status, waiver of subrogation, or primary and noncontributory provisions. The Description of Operations section allows the producer to specify project details, contract references, and specific endorsement information.
The ACORD 25 has undergone multiple revisions, with the current edition being widely adopted. The form is owned and copyrighted by ACORD (Association for Cooperative Operations Research and Development). Modifications to the standard form language — particularly the cancellation provision — are prohibited.
Why It Matters for Brokers
The ACORD 25 is the single most commonly issued document in commercial brokerage. Brokers must be intimately familiar with every field on the form. Errors in any field — from the insured's name to the limit amounts to the endorsement references — can trigger compliance failures. Certificate holders increasingly use automated systems to read and verify ACORD 25 data, meaning even minor formatting issues can cause rejections. Efficiency and accuracy in ACORD 25 issuance directly impacts a broker's operational cost and client satisfaction.
Real-World Example
A subcontractor needs 35 ACORD 25 certificates for different GCs and project owners, each with slightly different requirements. GC #1 requires additional insured and waiver of subrogation with CG 20 10 04 13 and CG 20 37 04 13 referenced in the Description of Operations. GC #2 requires the same plus primary and noncontributory. GC #3 requires $2M per occurrence instead of $1M. Without automation, a CSR spends 3-4 hours manually creating and verifying each certificate. With automated COI generation, the same 35 certificates are produced and verified in 20 minutes.
Common Mistakes
- 1Modifying the standard cancellation language on the ACORD 25, which violates ACORD's licensing agreement and can invalidate the certificate.
- 2Entering coverage details in the Description of Operations that are not actually endorsed on the policy, such as stating 'additional insured per CG 20 10' when the endorsement has not been issued.
- 3Using an outdated edition of the ACORD 25 form, which may be rejected by certificate holders using automated verification systems.
How brokerageaudit.com Handles This
COI Manager generates ACORD 25 certificates using the current form edition and populates all fields directly from Policy Checker-verified data. It enforces the standard ACORD cancellation language and prevents unauthorized modifications. The Description of Operations field is populated based on stored certificate holder requirements and verified endorsements. Batch certificate generation allows brokers to produce dozens of compliant certificates in minutes.