New York Certificates of Insurance

Sometimes, in order to get business, our clients are asked to supply their prospective customers with Certificate of Insurances. A Certificate of Insurance is a document prepared by your insurance company or our agency, which certifies you have certain coverages in your policy. The procedure for obtaining these documents is simple: Just call our office and we can walk you through it.

But, beware! Some entities—such as municipalities, banks and large contractors, which use form contracts—may require certificates stating that you have certain coverages in place, when you don’t. Sometimes, these coverages don’t even exist.

You have recourse. New York state passed a law this year, which went into effect on July 28. This new law standardizes and regulates the use of certificate forms and requires that certificates clearly and accurately reflect the coverages in the policy. The new law also prohibits any person from “willfully requiring” a certificate of insurance that contains false or misleading information. And, it authorizes the New York State Department of Financial Services to impose penalties for violations. So, it is now illegal to require a Certificate of Insurance that includes language of any kind—including warranties of coverage—that is not expressly found in the underlying policy, and only certain types of certificate forms may be used.

We want to help you respond to Requests for Proposals to grow your business without being subject to fines and penalties. If you are required by a potential customer to produce a false certificate, call the NYDFS. You also can call our office, and we can help.