Certificate of Insurance Requirements by State

Last updated July 2026.

Certificate of insurance requirements are not set by state. A certificate of insurance is a standardized ACORD form used nationwide, and no state dictates the limits you require from a vendor. What does vary by state is the underlying insurance the certificate proves: workers compensation is mandatory in every state except Texas, commercial auto liability minimums differ, and a handful of states and cities require proof of coverage to issue a business or contractor license. So the certificate stays the same across the country; the coverage rules behind it change.

If you run vendors, subcontractors or tenants in more than one state, this trips people up constantly. A general contractor working in Florida, Georgia and New York is not filling out three different certificates. The ACORD 25 is the same form in all fifty states. But the workers compensation rules, the minimum auto limits and the licensing requirements behind that form are state law, and they are not identical. Below is what actually changes by state and how to keep a multi-state program straight.

Are certificate of insurance requirements set by state?

No. The requirements you place on a vendor come from your own contract, not from state law. You decide the general liability limit, whether you require additional insured status, whether you require a waiver of subrogation, and which AM Best rating the carrier must hold. Those are commercial decisions written into your subcontract, lease or vendor agreement. The state does not set them. What the state does control is the insurance the vendor is legally required to carry in the first place, which is a floor, not the level a careful company requires.

Which insurance requirements actually vary by state?

Three things change from one state to the next. Workers compensation is mandated by each state and the rules on who must carry it differ. Commercial auto liability has a state-set financial responsibility minimum that varies. And business or contractor licensing sometimes requires proof of insurance to be filed with a state board or a city. General liability, by contrast, is not mandated by any state, so any general liability limit on a certificate exists because a contract asked for it.

Workers compensation requirements by state

Workers compensation is the biggest state-by-state difference. Every state except Texas requires most employers to carry it, and Texas lets employers opt out as a nonsubscriber. The threshold for when coverage kicks in varies: some states require it at the first employee, while others exempt very small employers or specific classes like agricultural or domestic workers. Sole proprietors and single-member entities with no employees are frequently exempt, which is why a legitimate one-person vendor may hand you a certificate with no workers compensation line. When that happens, collect a signed sole-proprietor exemption rather than waving the gap through, because a misclassified worker can land back on your own policy at audit.

Commercial auto liability minimums by state

Every state sets a financial responsibility minimum for auto liability, and those minimums are low, often far below what any commercial contract should accept. State minimums exist to license a vehicle, not to protect your business from a serious loss. That is why commercial contracts almost always require a combined single limit of $1,000,000 for any vendor who drives to your site, well above the state floor. Interstate motor carriers are a separate case: federal law sets a minimum of $750,000 and commonly $1,000,000 for freight haulers, which supersedes the state number.

Do any states require a certificate of insurance by law?

A few do, in narrow situations. Some states and municipalities require contractors to file proof of general liability or workers compensation coverage to obtain or renew a license, and certain permits (film shoots, street closures, alcohol service, special events on public property) require a certificate naming the government body as additional insured. But there is no general state law that says "a vendor must give you a certificate of insurance." That obligation comes from your contract, which is exactly why the contract, not the state, is where you set the terms.

How to handle vendors operating in multiple states

Write your requirements to the highest standard you need anywhere and apply them uniformly, then layer the state-specific items on top. In practice that means a single baseline (for example $1,000,000 per occurrence general liability, $1,000,000 combined single limit auto, statutory workers compensation, additional insured on a blanket endorsement) applied to every vendor, plus a check that workers compensation is written for the correct state of operations. A policy written only for a vendor's home state may not respond to a claim in the state where the work actually happens, so confirm the certificate lists the states where the vendor will be on your site. Because negligence and indemnity are decided state by state in the courts, the same uninsured-vendor claim can resolve very differently in two jurisdictions, which is one more reason to hold every vendor to a real standard rather than the local legal minimum.

Track multi-state COI requirements in one place

The hard part of a multi-state program is not knowing the rules; it is applying them consistently across hundreds of certificates that arrive in bursts. Vendor insurance compliance software reads each ACORD 25 with AI, checks the limits and endorsements against the requirement you set, and flags a certificate whose workers compensation is written for the wrong state or whose auto limit sits at the state minimum instead of your contract floor. For the coverage limits themselves, our guide to how much insurance to require from vendors walks through the standard numbers, and which AM Best rating to require covers the carrier-strength side that applies in every state.

The short version

The certificate of insurance is a national form, so it does not change by state. The insurance behind it does: workers compensation is required in every state but Texas, auto minimums are set by each state and are always too low for a commercial contract, and some licenses and permits require filed proof of coverage. Set one strong requirement in your contract, apply it everywhere, and confirm workers compensation matches the state where the work happens.