ACORD 125 General Information Section

How to Complete the ACORD 125 General Information Section

From time to time the questions in this section change. I will discuss the questions present as of this writing on May 30, 2014.

First you should enter a Y for YES or an N for NO in the far right hand column of all questions.

If the answer to any question is NO, you do not need to worry about completing any of the rest of the questions in that section.

If the answer to any question is YES, you will need to complete the other questions in that section and offer some type of explanation in the remarks section on this page. If you need more space for remarks you should use the ACORD 101 form.

SUBSIDIARY

Question 1a and 1b ask if the applicant is a subsidiary or owns subsidiary companies. List the companies and the percentage of ownership.

SAFETY PROGRAM

Check each box which applies. Insurance underwriters love formal safety programs. You should give as much information as possible here. This information is very useful in convincing underwriters to consider credits to reduce your customer's premium.

EXPOSURE TO FLAMMABLES, EXPLOSIVES, CHEMICALS

List any used in the operation of the business.

ANY OTHER INSURANCE WITH THIS COMPANY

List the line of business and policy number of in force policies only.

It is always an excellent idea to place all lines of business possible with the same carrier. This eliminates arguments about which carrier should pay for any specific claim.

ANY POLICY OR COVERAGE DECLINED, CANCELLED, OR NON-RENEWED

The time period is over the past three years.

Check all the check boxes which apply.

This is a very bad sign. If the reason for any of these actions has been addressed and changed, it will be very important to explain that information here.

ANY PAST LOSSES OR CLAIMS RELATED TO SEXUAL ABUSE OR MOLESTATION ALLEGATIONS, DISCRIMINATION OR NEGLIGENT HIRING

If the causes of these actions has been effectively addressed it will be extremely important for you to explain those in detail.

INDICTED OR CONVICTED OF ANY DEGREE OF CRIME. ETC

This is one of those questions you, the agent signing this form, can go to jail for if you mis-represent these issues. You may want to run a background check if you have any reason to question this at all.

UNCORRECTED CODE VIOLATIONS

Explain in detail. If corrections are in progress, explain that process in detail.

FORECLOSURE, REPOSSESSION, BANKRUPTCY

Explain in detail, including any corrections made or in progress of being made.

JUDGEMENT OR LIEN

Explain in detail.

BUSINESS PLACED IN TRUST

This is not always a bad thing. It could be in a trust due to Estate issues. The positive thing to show is continuity in successful management.

FOREIGN OPERATIONS, FOREIGN PRODUCTS DISTRIBUTED IN USA, OR US PRODUCTS DISTRIBUTED IN FOREIGN COUNTRIES

How would you treat digital products or services? What if the servers hosting these services are in the US but the services are used in other countries? What if the servers hosting the digital products or services are hosted in foreign countries but the services or products are only used in the USA. What if the servers hosting the digital products or services are hosted who knows where when using services such as Amazon's cloud as a host?


DOES APPLICANT HAVE OTHER BUSINESS VENTURES FOR WHICH COVERAGE IS NOT REQUESTED

Even if these ventures are not insured elsewhere, you need to disclose those ventures here.


ACORD FORMS EMAIL TUTORIALS

We offer a free daily or weekly email ACORD Forms Tutorial series. You can sign up below...

Sign Up for a Daily ACORD Forms Tutorial Email


Sign Up for a Weekly ACORD Forms Tutorial Email

ACORD 125 Additional Interest Section

How to Complete the Additional Interest Section of the ACORD 125

As the forms states, not all fields apply to all insureds. Only complete the ones which do apply. This is very important as any Additional Interest is given many of the rights of the Insured. You do not want to give these rights by error.

If you have more Additional Interests use the ACORD 45 form.

INTEREST

Check the box which applies for this specific business entity.

1. ADDITIONAL INSURED - Good Definition HERE
2. BREACH OF WARRANTY - Good Definition HERE
3. CO-OWNER - some one who is one of the owners of this insured business
4. EMPLOYEE AS LESSOR - If one of this business' employees is leasing property to this business
5. LEASEBACK OWNER - After purchasing an asset, the owner enters a long-term agreement by which the property is leased back to the seller at an agreed rate.
6. LIENHOLDER - a person who retains legal possession of a piece of property until the person to whom he/she has advanced money for use of the property has satisfactorily repaid the debt
7. LOSS PAYEE - Good Definition HERE
8. MORTGAGEE - Good Dicussion HERE
9. OWNER - The person or business which owns this business or item
10. REGISTRANT - This may be the person who registers a trademark, copyright or patent to be used by the insured. It could be the registrant of a web site URL being used by the insured.
11. TRUSTEE - A person appointed to manage the property of another.
12. OTHER - List your own here

NAME ADDRESS

Enter the full name and address as they need to be shown on a certificate of insurance.

RANK

Additional Interest can have a priority of rights. A rank of 1 would indicate this Additional Interest would receive protection from the policy prior to payments being made on behalf of lower ranked Additional Interests.

CHECK BOXES - EVIDENCE / CERTIFICATE / POLICY / SEND BILL

All can be checked.

Evidence means the Additional Interest requires an ACORD 27 or ACORD 28 Evidence of Insurance form to be issued.

Certificate means the Additional Interest requires a Certificate of Insurance to be issued.

Policy means the Additional Interest requires a copy of the actual policy.

Send Bill means the Additional Interest wants a copy of the bill.

REFERENCE  / LOAN #

Enter the loan number.

LIEN AMOUNT

Enter the amount of the original lien, not the current balance.

INTEREST END DATE

Enter the date the loan, lien, interest expires.

PHONE (A/C, No., EXT) 

Enter the phone number for the person at this Additional Interest who should be contacted with any issues related to their Additional Interest.

A/C is area code. No. is number - as in 7 digit phone number. EXT is the phone extension, if any, for this person.

E-MAIL ADDRESS

Enter the e-mail address for the person at this Additional Interest who should be contacted with any issues related to their Additional Interest.

FAX (A/C, No.)

Enter the FAX number for the person at this Additional Interest who should be contacted with any issues related to their Additional Interest.

INTEREST IN ITEM NUMBER

LOCATION, BUILDING, VEHICLE, BOAT, AIRPORT, AIRCRAFT, ITEM CLASS, ITEM

The number to enter here is the number referencing this at other places in this application. For instance, Location refers to the location number listed in the PREMISES INFORMATION section at the top of this page.

ITEM DESCRIPTION

If there is no other reference number in this form or other forms which are part of this application, enter a description.

EMAIL ACORD Forms Tutorials

We offer a daily or weekly email tutorial you can signup for below...

Sign Up for a Daily ACORD Forms Tutorial Email


Sign Up for a Weekly ACORD Forms Tutorial Email

ACORD 125 Commercial Insurance Application - Nature of Business Section

How to Complete the ACORD 125 Nature of Business Section

Check Boxes

The Nature of Business Section starts with 11 check boxes. These are not mutually exclusive. Your customer could be in multiple businesses. Check all which apply.

The check box with no text beside it is for any other type of business your customer may operate. Check the box and write in the one or two word description of this other activity.

DATE BUSINESS STARTED (MM/DD/YYYY)

This is the date the business began. If it has been many years and/or a change of ownership, the month or date may not be available. You can always check the web site for the Secretary of State's office for the state your customer is incorporated in and find this information.

DESCRIPTION OF PRIMARY OPERATIONS

This is a free form entry area. This is where you sell your underwriter on this risk. Do not mislead, but be crisp and direct. If there is a specific way your insured does business that makes them a safer risk than others in this general business category, you should mention it here.

If you need more space use the ACORD 101 form.

RETAIL STORES OR SERVICE OPERATIONS

The row below the DESCRIPTION OF PRIMARY OPERATIONS is only required if you are insuring retail stores or service operations. If not, leave this blank.

INSTALLATION, SERVICE OR REPAIR WORK

Enter the percentage of total revenues- income - which are for installation, service or repair activity.

You determine the % by dividing the amount of sales from these specific activities by the total sales and then multiplying this amount by 100.

Example:  Total Sales $100,000.
                Sales from installation, service or repair activity   $30,000.

30,000 divided by 100,000 = .30

.30 times 100 = 30. Show as 30%.


OFF PREMISES INSTALLATION, SERVICE OR REPAIR WORK

Enter the percentage of sales that comes from these activities away from the business premise location.

This percentage can be equal to but not more than the percentage in the first question.

The math is done the same way as above.

DESCRIPTION OF OPERATIONS OF OTHER NAMED INSUREDS

Remember back on the bottom of Page 1 of this form you could enter two additional Named Insureds.

If you did this, enter the description of their business activities here. Be sure to indicate which description belongs to which specific OTHER NAMED INSURED.

EMAIL TUTORIALS SERIES

We offer a daily and a weekly email ACORD Forms Tutorial.

Sign Up for a Daily ACORD Forms Tutorial Email


Sign Up for a Weekly ACORD Forms Tutorial Email

ACORD 125 Commerical Insurance Application Premises Information

How to Complete the ACORD 125 Premises Information

The Premises Information Section has room to list up to four locations.

Locations 2 through 4 are completed the same way as location 1.

If you have more than 4 locations use the ACORD 823 for those locations.

LOC# Location number. Starting with the first location assign this location number 1. Then follow with location number 2, etc. Or, if you are trying to irritate people, make the first location an "A" and the second location the number three, etc. I don't suggest this, but at least it still gives you and any other party looking at the application the same reference point.

STREET Enter the full street address of this location. For example - 3000 Computer Dr, Suite 200.

BLD# This is the building number for the building at this location. If the buildings actually have a building number displayed on the outside of the building, use this number. A location does not always include a building. For instance, your customer might own vacant land.

CITY The city for the physical street address.

STATE The two character abbreviation for the state in which this location exists. Example CA for California.

COUNTY The full county name for the location of this premise.

ZIP The 5 digit zip code plus the 4 digit extension if that is available.

CITY LIMITS There are three check boxes. You can only check one.

INSIDE means inside the city limits.

OUTSIDE means the premises is outside the city limits.

I assume the third is for any other municipal or county designation which applies in your state. Maybe INSIDE FIRE DISTRICT.

The importance of all this of course is the fire rates which will apply. Inside the city is always a lower fire rate than outside the city.

Some premises are located across city limit lines. As a general rule of thumb, it has been my experience that some structure must be on the land inside the city limit and then all other structures on the land will be responded to by the city fire department.

We once had an ice cream parlor put up a small metal shed in the corner of the property inside the city limit. Even though the main building was not connected, the main building received inside the city limits fire rates saving much more than the cost of the metal shed.

They also made the best banana pudding ice cream I have ever eaten.

INTEREST Three choices. You get to select one.

OWNER - The insured owns the premises. The ownership will have to be in the same legal name as one of the names in the Named Insured section on page one.

TENANT The insured rents or leases the premises.

OTHER - I ave no idea.

# FULL TIME EMPL The number of full time employees at this premises.Use numbers instead of letters.

# PART TIME EMPL The number of part time employees at this premises. Use numbers rather than letters. Where I live, part time is defined as less than 30 hours a week.

DESCRIPTION OF OPERATIONS A brief, because that is all the room you have, text description of what work is performed at this premises.

ANNUAL REVENUES: $ The estimated annual revenue generated for the business from activities at this premises location. Your customer may very well not be able to break this out by building or even location. That is not always normal accounting practice. If they do not have that information just leave this blank. My guess is this is one of those questions that is on the form only because the form was created by a committee. I suppose this one question is a gimme to the committee member that had no other question in the form.

OCCUPIED AREA List as a number of square feet. It may help at this point to know that an acre is 43,560 square feet. That will make your measurements easier than trying to do the math on oddly shaped property lines.

OPEN TO THE PUBLIC AREA List as a number of square feet.

TOTAL BUILDING AREA This is almost always on record at the county tax office.

ANY AREA LEASED TO OTHERS Y/N Input a "Y" or "N" if you are typing. If you are filling this form out by hand you could just circle the answer.

I hope this has helped you better understand how to complete the ACORD 125 commercial insurance application premises information section. I hope it also gave you some clever thoughts on how to lower your customers insurance premiums.

I believe a steady and regular amount of time spent learning about insurance and ACORD Forms makes you a better insurance professional.

We offer daily and weekly ACORD Forms Tutorial emails. You can sign up below...

Sign Up for a Daily ACORD Forms Tutorial Email

Sign Up for a Weekly ACORD Forms Tutorial Email

ACORD 125 How To Complete the Contact Information Section

ACORD 125 Commercial Insurance Application Contact Information Section

You or the insurance carrier may have many reasons to contact the insured. The names you list in the contact information section should anticipate these reasons...

1. General Information - the person you meet with, often the owner, to complete and review the application
2. Accounting Information - the bookkeeper, accountant, comptroller, etc. This would be the person an insurance company auditor would contact to get final payroll or sales numbers.
3. Physical Site Inspection - this would be the person the insurance carriers' safety engineers would contact to arrange an on-site visit.

CONTACT TYPE: Use the list above or add your own description of the type of contact to which this person will be best suited.

CONTACT NAME: The name of this contact. Use the name to which they normally answer. I have always called by brother Andy, but when I call his office nobody there knows him as Andy. They know him as Andrew or Mr. Williams. I would use Andrew Williams as the name for this space.

PRIMARY PHONE and SECONDARY PHONE:

Check the one box that applies - Home / Business / Cell

Some thoughts of mine on home and cell phones. I would never give out a customer's home or cell phone number without having a written permission to do so on file. Cell phones are more problematic than home phones because cell phones can receive texts. Text are a permanent record the same way an email is a permanent record. It is a dangerous legal idea to have a personal cell phone receive any business related text messages. It gets into all kinds of Privacy Law issues.

PRIMARY E-MAIL ADDRESS / SECONDARY E-MAIL ADDRESS

I would get written permission for my file before giving out their e-mail address. Of course, if the person whose email address you are listing here is also the person signing the application, then I think that is written permission.

I would worry about a secondary e-mail address being a personal e-mail address. I would worry about any e-mail address that was received on a personal - as opposed to business only - cell phone. As I understand it, if you have any business related data - texts, voice mails, e-mails - on your personal cell phone and you leave the employment of the business related to that data, then you are automatically at risk of being exposed to having committed a felony for possession of personal data.

SECOND CONTACT INFORMATION

These are exactly the same fields as listed above, just for a second contact.

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

We offer a daily and a weekly ACORD Forms Tutorial email. You can sign up below if you are interested...

Sign Up for a Daily ACORD Forms Tutorial Email

Sign Up for a Weekly ACORD Forms Tutorial Email

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.

We offer a daily or a weekly email ACORD Forms tutorial. You can sign up below.

Sign Up for a Daily ACORD Forms Tutorial Email

Sign Up for a Weekly ACORD Forms Tutorial Email

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.

Sign Up for a Daily ACORD Forms Tutorial Email


Sign Up for a Weekly ACORD Forms Tutorial Email