New contract with insurance requirements
You've been handed a contract with an insurance clause. Here's what it's actually asking for — and whether your program answers it.
A subcontract, a lease, a payer agreement, a funding contract, a shipper's terms — the insurance exhibit reads the same way in all of them: limits, additional-insured wording, waivers of subrogation, primary and non-contributory, notice periods, a carrier rating floor, drafted for the other side's lawyer and not for you. Your broker will issue a certificate. Whether the program behind the certificate meets the clause is a different question, and it is the one that matters when a claim is tendered.
Before you sign, three moves
Know what you're agreeing to carry.
In this order. The first two are things you can do from the contract and your own declarations; the third is a read by someone who does not issue the certificate.
Now — pull the insurance section out, as written.
This week — put each line against the policy that answers it.
Before you sign — have it read by someone who does not issue the certificate.
The part nobody explains
What most businesses don't know
A certificate of insurance is not evidence of compliance. It states that policies exist on a date and lists their limits; it does not attach the endorsements the contract names, and the disclaimer printed on the standard certificate form says as much. The party requiring the certificate usually knows this. The party providing it usually does not.
Whether it is a subcontract, a lease, a lender's covenant, a payer or referral agreement, a county funding contract or a shipper's carrier agreement, the clause was drafted for the other side. “Additional insured on a primary and non-contributory basis” is asking for specific endorsement forms, not a box on a certificate — and a liability policy can carry an additional-insured endorsement that satisfies none of it. A funding contract that names abuse and molestation cover, or a shipper that sets a cargo limit, is doing the same thing in a different vocabulary. The gap is invisible until a claim is tendered and the other side's carrier reads the form.
Done before signing, this is a checklist. Done after a claim, it is a coverage dispute with your name on it. Every requirement in the clause is ordinary and answerable; the cost is entirely in the order the questions get asked.
What actually happens
Here's what happens when you send it
The clause becomes a list.
Every requirement as its own line, in the contract's words — limits, forms, notice, rating, holder.
Each line gets read against the policy that answers it.
Declarations for the limits; the schedule of forms for the endorsements. Met, not met, or not readable from what you sent.
You sign knowing what you're carrying.
And what closing each gap would take — before it is a claim. The finding goes into the next renewal's blueprint.
Request the check
Send the clause. A person reads it against your program.
Nothing about this request is automated: someone at MetRisk reads the contract's insurance requirements against your declarations and your schedule of forms, and comes back to you with each line marked. Submit this and we reply from a named inbox — send the documents on that thread. We work only from what you send; your broker and your carriers are never contacted.
What we'll ask you to send
- The contract's insurance section — the exhibit or clause, not the whole contract
- Declarations pages for the policies it names — general liability, auto, umbrella and workers' compensation are almost always on the list; professional, abuse and molestation, cyber or cargo depending on what you do
- The schedule of forms and endorsements for each, if you have them — if not, say so, and we'll tell you exactly what to ask your broker for
Looking costs you nothing, and nobody finds out.
We work only from documents you already have. Your broker and your carriers are never contacted, and the analysis is free — the fee, when there is one, is a flat fee quoted plainly in the first conversation.
Private by default
- Nothing is shared with your broker or your carrier. Ever.
- No changes to your program. Looking is not switching.
- You decide who sees the findings — including whether we ever speak again.
You've been handed a clause you can't yet answer line by line.
Send the insurance section and the declarations, or bring them to a 15-minute review: what it asks for, what you hold, and what closing the difference would take.
Fifteen minutes with Michael Stoop, our founder. Nothing to prepare — bring the question you can't get a straight answer to.
Or call us now — 347.252.6150
Not ready for a conversation?
Take the blind-spot check
Ten questions about your own program, answered from memory in ninety seconds. Nothing uploads.
Get one policy reviewed, free
Send the policy you are least sure about. We read it against how you operate and send back the three findings with the most at stake, each tied to its page.
Run your own loss pick
Premium and losses in, your ratio against the 50% line out — one year is enough. Nothing is submitted to anyone.
Walk a full engagement
A sample account, start to finish — the blueprint, the gaps, the scored quotes, the decision. Judge the work before the pitch.
- Flat annual fee — never a percentage of your premium
- Broker commission disclosed on every quote, in writing
- No contingency payments, overrides, or profit-sharing