An ACORD Certificate of Insurance (COI) is an official document that outlines key information about your insurance policy, including your coverage types, limits, additional insureds, and effective dates.
An ACORD might not play sweet melodies like an accordion, but it does bring music to the ears of outside parties asking to see your proof of insurance.
This document helps to prove you are insured and lets someone know what types of coverage you have. It was created in the 1970s by the Association for Cooperative Research and Development (ACORD) to help standardize the forms insurance companies use.
Instead of having every insurance company create its own form, the ACORD Certificate of Insurance form became the industry standard for liability policies. So if a third party asks for a copy of your ACORD, it’s the same as asking to see your COI or Certificate of Insurance.
Coverage details, limits, and carrier information can vary based on the policy purchased.
An ACORD form may be universal, but the name certainly isn’t. There are a lot of nicknames used, but they all generally refer to the same document. You may see an ACORD called:
Let’s dive into some common questions we hear about ACORD certificates!
An ACORD certificate serves as proof of your insured status. It can be used to show a venue, event promoter, property manager, or another business that you have general liability insurance and may be covered for claims, like:
When you enter into business with someone else—whether that’s renting a booth, selling a product, starting a partnership, or being hired as an independent contractor—they assume a new level of risk and responsibility because if something goes wrong that’s caused by your business operations, they could get sued alongside you.
No one wants to shoulder more responsibilities, so having an ACORD shows you take ownership of your risks and can be trusted to work with.
If you need to have other information displayed on your certificate, like a waiver of subrogation or primary non-contributory, our team can work with you to do this (in most cases—we’re technically not magicians).
You can instantly access your ACORD COI by following these steps:
You can print this document or download a copy to your device to share it with anyone requesting to see proof of insurance. You can access your COI online 24/7 and have unlimited downloads, too!
An ACORD certificate is valid from the listed effective date (POLICY EFF) through the listed expiration date (POLICY EXP).
These dates will depend on the start date you select, and how long of a policy you select. For example, an annual policy with a start date of May 1st would show:
This same logic applies to a short-term event policy. If you purchased three days of coverage, then you will be covered for three days starting on the date you select during the purchasing process.
This same logic applies to a short-term event policy. If you purchased three days of coverage, then you will be covered for three days starting on the date you select during the purchasing process.
Our customers have given us a (nearly) 5-star rating, and we couldn’t be more thankful!
