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The practical answer

A certificate of insurance is easy to receive and easy to mis-read. Most reviews stop at 'the dates look current' — and most COI-related claim disputes trace back to something a 60-second deeper check would have caught. Here's the full verification, in the order that catches problems fastest.

01

The 7 checks

  • 1. Dates bracket the work. Every policy row's effective/expiration dates must cover your project or tenancy — an expiry mid-engagement is a diary entry, not a pass.
  • 2. The insured matches your contract. The INSURED box must show the exact legal entity you contracted with; 'ABC Roofing LLC' on the contract and 'ABC Roofing Inc' on the certificate is a different company.
  • 3. Limits meet requirements. GL each-occurrence and aggregate, auto CSL, umbrella, employer's liability — against your contract's numbers, not a gut feeling.
  • 4. Coverage types are all present. A certificate can be perfectly valid and simply omit workers comp because the agent wasn't asked.
  • 5. The endorsement pages are attached. ADDL INSD and SUBR WVD checkboxes prove nothing — the CG 20 10/CG 20 37 additional insured forms and the waiver endorsement must physically follow the certificate face.
  • 6. The certificate holder is you. Your exact entity and address — that's your paper trail and your renewal notice path.
  • 7. The insurers are real and rated. Unfamiliar carrier? The NAIC number on the form looks up in seconds; an unrated or unauthorized insurer is a finding.
02

Verify one right now, free

Upload any certificate to our free COI checker and it runs this checklist automatically — full extraction of every policy row, plus the endorsement-page review most tools skip, with the evidence quoted back. No account needed.

03

Verification is not a one-time event

Coverage cancels mid-term, renewals come back with lower limits, endorsements silently vanish at re-issue. A COI that verified in March can be worthless in June — which is why the real control is continuous tracking with re-verification at every renewal, not a one-time review at onboarding.

Operational boundary

Keep coverage decisions human and evidence explicit

CoverWarden records submitted evidence, requirements, findings, and authorized decisions. It does not issue coverage, guarantee claim outcomes, or replace your broker, attorney, or risk professional.

Common questions

What teams usually ask

How do I check if a certificate of insurance is real?

Call the producer (agent) listed on the certificate using a number you find independently, or verify the carrier via its NAIC number. Fraudulent certificates are usually re-typed PDFs — mismatched fonts, missing endorsement pages, and agents who don't answer are the tells.

Can I verify a COI online?

There's no central registry of certificates, but you can verify the content automatically: upload the PDF to a checker that extracts the policies and endorsements and evaluates them against your requirements.