ACORD 125 Signature Section

How to Complete the ACORD 125 Signature Section

At the top hand corner of the signature section of the ACORD 125 commercial insurance application is a check box you need to check to state that you have given this insured a copy of the Notice of Information Practices form.

This is the ACORD 38 form for most states. The following states have their own form as of this writing...

ACORD 38AR - Arkansas
ACORD 38AZ - Arizona
ACORD 38CA - California
ACORD 38CT - Connecticut
ACORD 38DE - Delaware
ACORD 38GA - Georgia
ACORD 38IL - Illinois
ACORD 38MT - Montana
ACORD 38NH - New Hampshire
ACORD 38NJ - New Jersey
ACORD 38NV - Nevada
ACORD 38OR - Oregon
ACORD 38RI - Rhode Island
ACORD 38VA - Virginia
ACORD 38WA - Washington

Not all states require a notice. Check with an experienced agent at your agency or with your underwriter.

In the bottom left hand corner of the first section of the Signature section there is a place to get your insured to initial. Don't forget this.

At the very bottom of the 4th page is a place for the Applicant's Signature and next to it a space to have the insured date their signature.

Next to that is a spot for your - the agent's - signature.

Finally there is a box for your National Producer Number if your agency has one.

If you are using our Cap Dat ACORD services we have an electronic, or e-signature, feature available to you. You can add this to the signature box and email a link to the form to your insured. They can then review and sign the form on a tablet, smart phone or most current browsers. This gives you an extra level of legal documentation on the time and date of the signature. It can also save time.

I hope this group of posts have been helpful in your learning more about how to complete the ACORD 125 commercial insurance application.

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ACORD 125 How to Complete the Applicant Information Section

How to complete the Applicant Information Section of the ACORD 125

The Applicant Information section repeats itself three times at the bottom of the first page of the ACORD 125.

The second and third time are for any additional legal names for your customer. This would be likely to be the result of your customer owning subsidiary companies.

Please refer back to the information in this section for how to fill in the same named fields for a second or third legal entity.

I will work from the left to the right and from the top to the bottom.

NAME: Enter the full legal name and address as your customer will need it to be shown in a certificate of insurance.

Example;

Atlatl, Inc.
P.O. Box 2936
Durham, NC 27705-2936

GL CODE: This is the General Liability code. ISO - Insurance Services Office created these codes for use in rating general liability insurance.

Your carrier will have a list of all these codes. If you use a commercial lines rating software program, that program should have all these codes.

I have found two sources of these codes online at the following links...

https://www.faia.com/core/contentmanager/uploads/FIRL/Rapid%20Reference/Commercial%20General%20Liability%20Classifications%20%E2%80%93%20Numerical%20Listing.pdf


http://www.htbailey.com/tools/class_codes_listing.htm


SIC: Standard Industry Classification Code. You can find these at this link...

https://www.osha.gov/pls/imis/sicsearch.html


NAICS - The good old North American Industry Classification System codes. My Mother used to read these to me at bedtime. You can find them at this link...

https://www.census.gov/eos/www/naics/


FEIN or SOC SEC#: FEIN is the federal employer ID number. The Federal Tax ID number. Your customer will have this unless they are doing business as an individual. It will be on their federal tax returns if nowhere else.

SOC SEC# is the customers social security number. If they do not have a Federal Tax ID number because they are doing business as an individual, you need to use this number.

BUSINESS PHONE #: The main business phone number for your customers main office.

WEBSITE ADDRESS: This will be for the main website for your customer's business. Many businesses have more than one website. They may have websites for each individual product or service they sell. You should list these websites main addresses in the remarks section.

TYPE OF BUSINESS LEGAL ENTITY

Mark the ONE box which is the legal entity your customer has set up. Your customer will know this. If they do not, first I would worry about them. Second, I would go to Secretary of State's website for the state they are in and look them up by name. It will show the legal structure.

The choices are:

CORPORATION
INDIVIDUAL
JOINT VENTURE
LLC - this stands for Limited Liability Corporation. If they are an LLC you need to enter the number of members and managers.
NOT FOR PROFIT
PARTNERSHIP
SUBCHAPTER "S" CORPORATION
TRUST
OTHER - enter what other type the business is.


I hope this helps you learn how to complete the ACORD 125 commercial insurance application applicant information section.

Taking a few minutes on a regular basis is a proven way to increase your knowledge and professionalism.

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ACORD 125 Policy Information Section

How to Complete the ACORD 125 Policy Information Section

The Policy Information Section includes the following inputs:

PROPOSED EFF DATE: The proposed effective date of the policy or policies. The effective date is the date the policy coverage begins or "goes in force". If the policies your are requesting for this insured have multiple effective dates, you should complete a separate ACORD 125 for each policy with a different effective date.

Enter the dates in this numeric format - MM/DD/YYYY. Example: 07/01/2014 for July 1, 2014

PROPOSED EXP DATE: The proposed expiration date of the policy or policies. This is the date the policy ends and the coverage will need to be replaced by either a renewal policy with this carrier or a new policy with a different carrier.

Enter the dates in this numeric format - MM/DD/YYYY. Example: 07/01/2014 for July 1, 2014

BILLING PLAN: A policy cannot be both Direct Bill and Agency Bill.

DIRECT: This is direct bill. Direct bill is when the insurance carrier bills the customer directly. This means the carrier is responsible for collecting the premium payments, not the agency.

AGENCY: This is agency bill. Agency bill is when the agency - you - are responsible for collecting the premiums on these policies.

Agency bill also means your agency has an account current with this insurance carrier. You collect the premiums and at some later date - maybe 30, 45 or 60 days later - your agency sends payment, less commission, to the insurance carrier.

PAYMENT PLAN: Some insurance carriers offer payment plan options such as quarterly billing or monthly billing. If you are asking your carrier to quote or issue the policy with one of these options enter that here.

METHOD OF PAYMENT: Will the customer be paying with check, electronic check, credit card, etc.  You will only need to enter this if the policy is Direct Bill. If the policy is agency bill the underwriter will not care about this.

AUDIT: Many commercial policies are audited by the insurance carrier after the end of the policy period. Since many policy premiums are based on sales estimates, this is done so the insurance carrier can end up charging for the actual exposure during the policy period. Audits can result in a refund or an additional premium due.

If your customer is growing fast or shrinking fast, it is a good idea for you to talk to your customer and adjust the estimated numbers during the policy period.

DEPOSIT: This is the dollar amount that you are sending to the insurance carrier so they will issue the policy.

This may be a space you leave blank until you have a quote.

MINIMUM PREMIUM: Most commercial policies have a minimum premium that is charged for small accounts. You will leave this blank. The underwriter giving you a quote will fill this in.

POLICY PREMIUM: This is also a space you will leave blank. Unless you are rating and issuing the policy yourself, the underwriter will fill this in when they provide a quote or issue the policy.

I hope this helps you learn how to complete the policy information section of the ACORD 125 commercial insurance application.

Taking a few minutes each day to learn is a great way to build your insurance knowledge over time.

We offer a daily and a weekly ACORD Forms tutorial email. If you are interested you can sign up below.

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ACORD 125 Commercial Insurance Application - Attachments

How to Complete the Attachments Section of the ACORD 125

In the Attachments Section you continue your inventory of all the forms you are including with this application.

The value of this exercise is...

1 - a final checklist for you to be sure you are sending your underwriter all the forms needed to quote and issue this group of policies
2 - a checklist for your underwriter to be sure she has all the forms you sent

If you are using Cap Dat ACORD, you can combine all these forms into one single form. That way the attachments cannot get lost.

Here is a list of the corresponding ACORD form numbers for the items listed in this section as of this writing...

• Additional Interest - ACORD 145
• Additional Premises - ACORD 160 or ACORD 823
• Apartment Building Supplement - ACORD 105
• Condo Association By Laws - no ACORD form, the actual bylaws
• Contractors Supplement - ACORD 186
• Coverages Schedule - no ACORD form
• Driver Information Schedule - ACORD 163
• International Liability Exposure Supplement - ACORD 815
• International Property Supplement - ACORD 816
• Premium Payment Supplement - ACORD 610
• Professional Liability Supplement - ACORD 187
• Restaurant / Tavern Supplement - ACORD 185
• Statement / Schedule of Values - ACORD 139
• State Supplement (if applicable) - Various state forms
• Vacant Building Supplement - ACORD 106
• Vehicle Supplement - ACORD 129

The remaining 13 blank sections are for any other ACORD or company specific forms you are sending your underwriter as a part of the overall submission.

I hope this helps you learn how to complete the ACORD 125 commercial insurance application applicant section attachments sections.

Taking a few minutes each day is a wonderful way to steadily build your insurance knowledge.

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ACORD 125 Commercial Insurance Application Sections Attached

How to Complete the ACORD 125 Sections Attached Section

Put a check mark next to each additional ACORD forms attached to this application.

If you are using Cap Dat ACORD you can actually add each of these forms to the ACORD 125 form. This means your underwriter will not have to wonder if they have all the forms. They will be one large PDF.

Here is a listing of the ACORD Form numbers for each of the Sections listed as possible attachments.

• ACCOUNTS RECEIVABLE/VALUABLE PAPERS - ACORD 145
• BOILER & MACHINERY - ACORD 155BM
• BUSINESS AUTO - ACORD 127 followed by the ACORD 137 for each specific state where vehicles are garaged
• BUSINESS OWNERS - ACORD 160
• COMMERCIAL GENERAL LIABILITY - 126
• CRIME - ACORD 141
• DEALERS - ACORD 128
• ELECTRONIC DATA PROTECTION - ACORD 148
• EQUIPMENT FLOATER - ACORD 146
• GARAGE AND DEALERS - ACORD 128 followed by the ACORD 138 for each specific state where vehicles are garaged
• GLASS AND SIGN - ACORD 144
• INSTALLATION/BUILDERS RISK - ACORD 147
• OPEN CARGO - ACORD 193
• PROPERTY - ACORD 140
• TRANSPORTATION/MOTOR TRUCK CARGO - ACORD 143
• TRUCKERS/MOTOR CARRIERS - ACORD 132
• UMBRELLA - ACORD 131
• YACHT - ACORD 210

The remaining three blocks are for any form not listed above.

I hope this helps you learn how to complete the ACORD 125 commercial insurance application applicant information section / sections attached.

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ACORD 125 How to Complete the Carrier Information Section

ACORD 125 - Commercial Insurance Application Applicant Information Section - Carrier Info and Policy Status

Carrier Information

The Carrier - or insurance company - information is in the top right hand corner of the ACORD 125 form.

CARRIER: This is the name of the specific insurance carrier to whom you are sending the application.

NAIC stands for the National Association of Insurance Commissioners.

Here is their website home page...

http://www.naic.org/index.htm

They assign each insurance company a five digit code. You can search for any insurance company by name on their website at this page...

https://eapps.naic.org/cis/


COMPANY POLICY OR PROGRAM NAME: If your insurance carrier has a specific program or policy for the customer you are sending the application for, enter that name here.

Example: An insurance carrier might have a specific program for contractors called Clean Contractors 2020. You would enter that name.

PROGRAM CODE: If in addition to a program name, your carrier has a program code, enter that code in this box.

POLICY NUMBER: If this is renewal application, or if for some other reason the policy number has already been assigned, enter the policy number here. If no policy number has been assigned, enter tbd - to be determined - or some other response to that effect.

UNDERWRITER: The name of the specific underwriter to whom you are sending this application.

UNDERWRITER OFFICE: Many insurance companies have regional offices. Some have everything run from one single home office. Enter the name - normally the city is used as the name - of the office location where the underwriter to whom you are sending this application works.

STATUS of TRANSACTION

The Status of transaction has 6 status options. You should put a mark in all that apply.

QUOTE: Check this box if you want the underwriter to send you a premium quotation. Usually this is done before the customer commits to the policy.

BOUND (Give Date and/or Attach Copy): When you as an agent "BIND" a policy, you are putting that policy in force. You are committing the insurance company to pay losses on this customer until the company can issue legal cancellation notice. Make absolutely certain you and/or your agency has legal binding authority for this action. You can always ask your underwriter about this.

There are many times when binding a policy is exactly the right thing to do.

When you bind the policy, you must enter the date and time you are taking this action. While policies normally begin at either midnight or noon, when you bind a policy you must enter the actual time you take this action.

Never back date a bound date without written instructions from the underwriter to do so.

CHANGE: Check this box if you are only asking for changes to the application you have already sent.

CANCEL: Check this box if you are asking to cancel.

I have never seen this used. I suppose if you wanted to withdraw the application you would send this in to cancel the request. But an email would document the same purpose. If you are asking to cancel a polciy you need to send the ACORD Request for Cancellation form.

ISSUE POLICY: This is telling your underwriter to go ahead and issue the policy even before they tell you the cost. If you show a policy status of BOUND, you should also check the ISSUE POLICY box.

RENEW: This is telling your underwriter to go ahead and issue the policy renewal.

DATE: Normally you should enter in numeric format MM/DD/YYYY. Example 10/15/2014 for Oct 15 2014.

TIME: Enter actual time and check whether you mean AM or PM.

I hope this has helped you learn how to complete the ACORD 125 commercial insurance application applicant information section.

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ACORD Forms Tutorial - ACORD 125

This is our first pass at putting "how to" videos out on YouTube to help folks learn how to complete ACORD Forms

Much more to come as fast as we can get them done.

Notice we are dividing each form up into it's own sections so no video gets too long or tedious. It does mean you will have to pay attention to the title to get the correct section of the ACORD Form "How To" complete this form video.