ACORD 25 - Description of Operations - Part 16 How to Complete a Certificate of Liability Insurance

The Description of Operations section is the large box above the Certificate Holder section.

This space is commonly used to limit or define the specific job for which a certificate is issued.

For example, your insured may need to provide a certificate when they win a bid to do a specific job for a city government. Let us say they won a bid to put in sidewalks on Elm St between Main and Oak streets. The description might read...

"Contract 1726-05 awarded April 2nd, 2014 with City of Durham for sidewalk construction on Elm St between Main St. and Oak St."

You should attempt to be this specific when possible.

Many certificates are required for longer term relationships and are re-issued at every renewal. In these cases the Description may be more general.

If you have listed the Certificate Holder as an Additional Insured you should be as specific and limiting as possible.

A common abuse and misuse of this section is to add wording that shows advance cancellation notification time periods or wording that seems to expand coverage. You should never do this. It is setting yourself up for an E&O claim.

I hope this is helpful in your process of learning how to complete the ACORD 25 certificate of liability insurance.

Please feel free to pass this along to others.