Short answer: a certificate of insurance covers nothing. It is a summary – proof that a policy existed on the day the certificate was issued. The policy provides the coverage. The certificate only describes it.

That distinction sounds pedantic until it costs someone money, which in my experience it does about once a quarter.

What a certificate actually is

A certificate of insurance – usually shortened to COI – is a one-page document issued by your broker listing who is insured, which policies are in force, the limits, the effective and expiry dates, and who is receiving it. It gets issued because someone asked: a general contractor, a landlord, a shipper, a municipality, or a client who will not release a purchase order without one.

Every certificate carries a disclaimer saying it confers no rights on the holder and does not amend the policy. That sentence is the whole point. If the policy does not cover the loss, a certificate saying it does will not change the outcome.

The four lines that matter

• The named insured. It must be the exact legal entity doing the work. If the contract is with 1234567 Nova Scotia Limited and the certificate says a trade name, that is a real gap, not a typo.
• The limits. Two million on the certificate against a contract demanding five million is a rejected certificate. Check the number against the contract, not against last year’s certificate.
• Additional insured status. This is the one people miss. Being listed as certificate holder gives you nothing except a copy. Being named as an additional insured extends the policy to you. They are different fields and they mean different things.
• The dates. A certificate is a snapshot. A policy cancelled for non-payment three weeks after issue leaves a certificate that still looks perfectly valid.

Certificate holder vs. additional insured

If you are hiring someone, being the certificate holder means you receive the document and, usually, notice of cancellation. It does not put you under their policy.

Additional insured status does. If a claim arises out of their work and you get named in the lawsuit, their insurer defends you too. That is the protection you actually wanted when you asked for the certificate – and it needs to be requested specifically, because it is an endorsement on their policy, not a courtesy.

What a certificate will never do

• Create coverage the policy does not contain.
• Override an exclusion. If a roofer’s policy excludes hot work, a certificate does not reinstate it.
• Guarantee the policy is still in force tomorrow.
• Tell you the limit has not already been eroded by other claims this term.

The practical version

If you are issuing certificates: send your broker the contract, not just the request. The insurance clause tells us which limits, endorsements, and wording the certificate has to satisfy. Certificates written from a template get rejected and cost you a start date.

If you are collecting certificates: verify the legal name, check the limits against your own contract, insist on additional insured status where your contract requires it, and diarize the expiry date. Collecting a certificate and filing it unread is the same as not collecting one.