ACORD 25 form: what it is and how to read one

Field-by-field walkthrough of an ACORD 25

**Producer** (top left): the insurance agency that issued the certificate. Includes their name, address, phone, and contact person. This is who you call to verify.

**Insured** (left middle): the contractor's legal entity name and address. Should match the company name on their contract with you. If your contract is with 'Acme Roofing LLC' but the COI shows 'John Smith DBA Acme,' the entity behind the policy may not be the entity behind the contract — flag it.

**Insurer(s) Affording Coverage** (right middle): the actual insurance carriers underwriting each line. Will show carrier name + NAIC number. Look up the NAIC number (NAIC.org) to confirm the carrier is real.

**Coverages section** (the table that takes up most of the page): one row per coverage type. Each row shows the policy number, effective date, expiration date, and the limits. The four most important rows for a roofing contractor: Commercial General Liability (CGL), Commercial Auto, Workers' Compensation, Umbrella/Excess.

**Description of Operations / Locations / Vehicles** (bottom): free-text section where additional context lives. If you've requested to be named additional insured for a specific job, that endorsement note appears here.

**Certificate Holder** (very bottom): the party requesting/receiving this specific certificate. Often the homeowner or general contractor. Being named here means you receive the COI — but it's NOT the same as being an additional insured (which has actual coverage rights).

What coverage limits to look for on a residential roof job

**Commercial General Liability:** $1,000,000 per occurrence / $2,000,000 aggregate at minimum. This covers third-party property damage and bodily injury from the contractor's operations.

**Commercial Auto Liability:** $1,000,000 combined single limit. If their truck damages your driveway or hits a pedestrian on the street, this covers it.

**Workers' Compensation:** present on the form with limits per Missouri statutory minimums ($25,000–$100,000 typical for small operators). If WC is blank or shows 'employee exclusion,' the contractor either has no employees or has explicitly excluded coverage — both raise the question of who pays if a worker is injured on your roof.

**Umbrella / Excess Liability:** $1,000,000–$5,000,000 above the underlying policies. Not strictly required but a sign of a well-run operation.

If the form shows much lower limits, you're either dealing with a very small operator (fine if you're hiring for a small job) or someone who's underinsured for the work they're proposing to do.

How to spot a forged ACORD 25

**Misspelled carrier names.** 'Travllers' instead of 'Travelers,' 'Hartfod' instead of 'Hartford.' Forgers often copy from memory or low-resolution images.

**Producer phone number that doesn't match the agency.** Google the agency name independently. The phone on a real ACORD 25 should match the agency's published phone number. A storm chaser may print a fake number that goes to their own office and confirms the certificate is 'current.'

**Pixelated or off-center ACORD logo.** Real ACORD forms are produced from official software with clean rendering. Off-center, blurry, or recolored logos are forgery signals.

**Effective/expiration dates that don't quite line up.** Most policies are 12-month terms. If a policy shows 6-month or 18-month terms with weird date offsets, look closer.

**No NAIC number for the carrier.** NAIC numbers are required on ACORD 25. A blank field is suspicious; a fake NAIC number is detectable by looking it up on NAIC.org.

**The simplest defense: call the producer directly using a phone number you Google independently.** Five-minute call eliminates 99% of forgery risk.