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FIELD GUIDE — ACORD 25
How to read acertificate of insurancebefore you shoot.
A location manager, venue, or permit office is going to hand your production a Certificate of Liability Insurance and expect you to know what you’re looking at. Here’s every field on the standard ACORD 25, marked up like a script page, so nothing gets past you on shoot day.
FORM: ACORD 25 USED FOR: General Liability, Auto, Umbrella, Workers’ Comp WHO SENDS IT: Your insurance producer/broker
WHO WANTS IT: Venues, locations, permits, distributors
01 — THE MARKUP
Thirteen fields, one page.
Every number below is called out on the mock certificate to the right in the same order it appears on a real ACORD 25. Read top to bottom the first time; after that, jump straight to the fields that bite productions most: coverage dates, additional insured, and the description box.
1 Date of issuance
top-right corner. This is when the certificate was printed — not the policy dates. A certificate dated six months ago may no longer reflect current coverage. Ask for a fresh one if it's stale.
2 Producer
The insurance agency or broker who issued the certificate — this is who to call if a location or venue rejects it and you need a correction or an added endorsement fast.
3 Insured
The legal name of the policyholder — your production company or LLC. It must match your contract exactly. "Acme Films LLC" and "Acme Films Inc." are not interchangeable to a venue's legal team.
4 Insurers A-F & NAIC #
The actual carriers underwriting each policy, each with a National Association of Insurance Commissioners number. Multiple coverage types can sit with different, A-rated carriers.
5 INSR LTR column
Ties each coverage row back to an insurer letter above. If a row's letter has no matching insurer listed, the certificate is incomplete.
6 Type of insurance
General Liability, Auto, Umbrella/Excess, Workers' Comp. Check that every coverage your contract requires actually has a row filled in — a blank row means that coverage isn't confirmed.
7 ADDL INSD / SUBR WVD
Checkboxes for additional insured status and waiver of subrogation. A checked box is a claim, not proof — the underlying policy endorsement (e.g. CG 20 10) has to actually exist for it to hold up.
8 Policy number & dates
Confirm the policy period fully covers your prep-through-wrap dates, including any tech scouts or strike days that fall outside principal photography.
9 Limits
Each Occurrence, General Aggregate, Products/Completed Ops. Line these up against whatever minimum your location, venue, or distributor contract specifies — most ask for $1M/$2M as a floor.
10 Description of operations
The free-text box naming your project, shoot address, and any additional-insured or primary-and-noncontributory wording. This is the most information-dense field on the form — read it in full.
11 Certificate holder
The entity that requested the certificate — the venue, landlord, or city permit office. Its name and address need to be exact; a typo here can get a certificate bounced at the gate.
12 Cancellation notice
How much advance notice the certificate holder gets if the policy is cancelled mid-production. Watch for "will endeavor to" language — it signals intent, not a guarantee.
13 Authorized representative
A signature (physical or digital) from the issuing agency. An unsigned certificate isn't valid — don't accept one without it.
CERTIFICATE OF LIABILITY INSURANCE
1
DATE (MM/DD/YYYY)08/24/2023
2
PRODUCERNextStage Coverage Group
10000 Insurance Dr, Ste 200
NextStage, CA 90025
4
INSURER(S) AFFORDING COVERAGE ANextStage Casualty Co.12345
BTwoStar Excess Inc.67890
CWorkSafe Insurance Co.54321
3
INSUREDAcme Independent Films, LLC
1234 Cahuenga Blvd, Los Angeles, CA 90028
5
INSRLTR
6
TYPE OF INSURANCE 7
ADDL INSD /SUBR WVD
8
POLICY NUMBER& DATES
9
LIMITS A
COMMERCIAL GENERAL LIABILITY
☐ CLAIMS-MADE ☑ OCCUR
☐ CLAIMS-MADE ☑ OCCUR
Y / Y
GL-9827364
09/01/2023
09/01/2024
09/01/2023
09/01/2024
EACH OCCURRENCE$1,000,000
DAMAGE TO RENTED PREMISES$100,000
MED EXP (Any one person)$5,000
PERSONAL & ADV INJURY$1,000,000
GENERAL AGGREGATE$2,000,000
PRODUCTS - COMP/OP AGG$2,000,000
B
AUTOMOBILE LIABILITY
☑ ANY AUTO
☐ ALL OWNED AUTOS
☑ HIRED AUTOS
☑ NON-OWNED AUTOS
☑ ANY AUTO
☐ ALL OWNED AUTOS
☑ HIRED AUTOS
☑ NON-OWNED AUTOS
Y / N
AL-9827365
09/01/2023
09/01/2024
09/01/2023
09/01/2024
COMBINED SINGLE LIMIT$1,000,000
A
UMBRELLA LIABILITY
☑ OCCUR
☐ EXCESS LIAB
☑ OCCUR
☐ EXCESS LIAB
Y / Y
UMB-1234
09/01/2023
09/01/2024
09/01/2023
09/01/2024
EACH OCCURRENCE$5,000,000
AGGREGATE$5,000,000
C
WORKERS COMPENSATION
AND EMPLOYERS' LIABILITY
AND EMPLOYERS' LIABILITY
- / -
WC-55555
09/01/2023
09/01/2024
09/01/2023
09/01/2024
☑ PER STATUTE
E.L. EACH ACCIDENT$1,000,000
10
DESCRIPTION OF OPERATIONS / LOCATIONS / VEHICLESFor "Feature" (Feature) - principal photography 09/05/2023-09/25/2023 at scheduled location. Certificate holder is named additional insured per attached form CG 20 10; coverage is primary and non-contributory.
02 — BEFORE YOU FILE IT
Five ways a COI quietly fails you.
Most rejected certificates aren’t fraudulent — they’re just incomplete. Run through these before you send a certificate to a location or accept one from a vendor.
→ 01
Blank or "TBD" fields
Empty policy numbers, limits, or dates usually mean the certificate was rushed out before coverage was fully confirmed.
→ 02
Dates that miss your shoot
A policy period that ends before wrap — or already expired — leaves you with paper, not protection, on the days that matter.
→ 03
"If required" language
Conditional wording like “additional insured if required by contract” often means the endorsement was never actually added.
→ 04
Wrong holder name
A misspelled venue name or an address that doesn’t match your location agreement can get the certificate rejected at check-in.
→ 05
No signature
Certificates without an authorized representative’s signature aren’t valid — don’t treat an unsigned PDF as proof of coverage.
→ 06
Missing endorsement copy
If your contract requires additional insured or waiver of subrogation, ask for the actual endorsement form, not just a checked box.
MovieInsure.com Insurance Services — film, production & event insurance nationwide.
This guide is educational and not a substitute for reviewing your actual policy documents.
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