Additional insured, primary and non contributory

Additional insured status extends another party's liability policy to cover you for claims arising out of their work or their products. It is the standard tool for pushing risk back to the vendor, subcontractor, or tenant who actually created it. The status generally has to be granted by endorsement, and the wording of that endorsement decides how much protection you actually received.

Primary and non contributory is the second half of the sentence, and it is the half that gets skipped. Primary means their policy pays first. Non contributory means their carrier cannot demand that yours chip in. Without both, you can hold a certificate that looks impressive while your own policy quietly funds a loss somebody else caused, which shows up later as your claims history and your renewal pricing.

The practical discipline is unromantic: collect certificates before work starts rather than during a crisis, confirm the endorsement forms behind them rather than trusting the certificate face, and pair the whole thing with a waiver of subrogation. Vendors who cannot produce these are telling you something useful about how they operate.

Related terms

This page is education, not advice. Policy language varies by carrier, form, and state, so confirm how your own program is written with a licensed insurance professional.