Burand’s Agency E&O Blog: Tip #37

Mailing Certificates of Insurance. You should always do what companies tell you to do because they always look out for the agent, right?

If an agency issues a certificate of insurance that affects the cancellation of an insurance policy in any way, including, to whom a cancellation notice must be sent, and the insurance company is not aware of this, is it possible the company will not notify the right party(s)? So when an agency follows the company’s instruction to not send certificates of insurance to them, have other precautions been taken to assure the company has this information? If not, who gets hung?

Another possible solution is to have the company give the agency a hold harmless agreement. If the companies really believe their receipt is pointless, then a hold harmless specific to mailing certificates should be an easy document to sign, right?