Certificate of Insurance vs Declaration Page: What to Accept

Last updated August 2026.

A certificate of insurance is a one-page summary an agent issues to a third party as evidence that a policy exists, and it grants no coverage by itself. A declarations page is part of the actual policy, issued by the insurer to the policyholder, and it lists the named insured, policy period, limits, deductibles and premium. For vendor compliance you should ask for the certificate of insurance, because only the COI names you as certificate holder and reflects your requirements. Ask for the dec page as a supplement when you need to see a deductible, a self-insured retention or the schedule of forms attached to the policy.

Vendors send both, often interchangeably, and usually because someone in their office grabbed whatever insurance document was closest to hand. The two look similar enough that plenty of compliance teams file a dec page as if it settled the question. It does not, and the gap between them shows up at exactly the wrong moment, which is when you need to prove a subcontractor carried the coverage your contract required.

What is a declarations page?

A declarations page, usually shortened to dec page, is the front section of an insurance policy. The insurer issues it to its own policyholder when the policy is written or renewed. It states who the named insured is, the policy number, the effective and expiration dates, the coverage parts purchased, the limits of insurance for each, the deductible or self-insured retention, the premium charged, and normally a schedule listing every form and endorsement attached to the policy.

The dec page is an internal document. It is written for the person who bought the insurance, which is why it shows money: what they paid, and what they have to pay out of pocket before coverage responds. Nothing on it is addressed to you.

What is a certificate of insurance?

A certificate of insurance, almost always the ACORD 25 form in the United States, is a summary produced by the vendor's agent or broker for someone outside the policy. It lists the producer, the insured, each carrier and policy number, the coverage types and limits, the policy dates, and a certificate holder box that carries your name and address. It has checkbox columns for additional insured status and waiver of subrogation, and a Description of Operations field where project details and endorsement references get typed in.

The ACORD 25 states in its own disclaimer that it confers no rights on the certificate holder and does not amend, extend or alter the coverage. That sentence is the whole reason endorsements exist. If you need to actually be an additional insured, the endorsement form does that, not the certificate. Our guide to how to read a certificate of insurance walks the form box by box.

Certificate of insurance vs declaration page: the differences that matter

Is a COI the same as a declaration page?

No. A COI is a summary of a policy prepared for someone outside it, and a declarations page is a component of the policy itself prepared for the policyholder. The practical difference is the certificate holder box: a COI is addressed to you by name, tracks your requirements, and can be reissued whenever coverage changes. A dec page is addressed to nobody in particular and does not know you exist.

Can I accept a declarations page instead of a certificate of insurance?

You can, but you generally should not, and it is worth being clear about why rather than treating it as a rule. A dec page does prove a policy exists, and it proves it with more authority than a COI does, because the carrier issued it. What it cannot do is show that the policy responds to you. It has no certificate holder, no additional insured checkbox, and no place for the project or contract reference your agreement requires.

There is also a workflow problem. Certificates are built to be reissued. When a vendor renews, their agent generates a new COI addressed to you, and a tracking system knows to expect it. Dec pages arrive only when the carrier issues them, which means a vendor who sent you a dec page in March has no particular reason to send you anything in March of the following year. That is how coverage lapses go unnoticed. The same failure mode shows up in what happens when a vendor's insurance expires.

What is the difference between a policy and a certificate of insurance?

The policy is the contract between the insurer and the insured. It is typically dozens or hundreds of pages: the declarations, the coverage forms, every endorsement, and the exclusions. The certificate of insurance is a single page that summarizes a few facts from that contract for a third party, and it carries a disclaimer saying it changes nothing about the contract. A policy creates coverage. A certificate reports on it.

What a declarations page shows that a COI does not

This is where the dec page earns its place in a compliance file, and it is the part most guidance skips. Three things appear on a dec page and never on an ACORD 25.

The deductible or self-insured retention. A vendor can hold a $1 million general liability limit over a $250,000 self-insured retention, and the certificate will look identical to a vendor with a $1,000 deductible. If a claim never exceeds the retention, the carrier never pays, and a contractor without the cash to fund that retention is effectively uninsured for the losses you are most likely to see. If you require high limits from small vendors, the SIR is the number to check.

The schedule of forms and endorsements. Most commercial dec pages list every form attached to the policy by number and edition date. That schedule tells you whether CG 20 10 or CG 20 37 is actually on the policy, and which edition, without asking for the endorsement copies. Our reference on certificate of insurance endorsements covers what those form numbers mean, and CG 20 10 and CG 20 37 explains the ongoing versus completed operations split that catches people out.

The full named insured schedule. Dec pages usually list every named insured entity. If your contract is with an operating company that turns out not to be on the policy, the dec page shows it and the certificate probably will not.

What a COI shows that a declarations page does not

The certificate holder box is the obvious one, and it matters more than it looks. It records that this document was produced for you, on a date, with your requirements in view. The additional insured and waiver of subrogation columns flag which endorsements the agent believes are in place. The Description of Operations field carries the project number, the property address, or the contract reference that ties coverage to the work.

None of that is proof on its own. The checkbox is the agent's assertion, not the endorsement, which is why the serious version of this process is to request the endorsement forms for anything your contract requires. But the certificate is the document that starts that conversation, and the dec page is not.

When to ask for the dec page anyway

Ask for it when the money at stake justifies the extra step. High-limit contracts, anything with a wrap-up program, vendors doing work you would be sued alongside them for, and any situation where a small vendor is presenting large limits. Ask for it when a certificate shows limits that look inconsistent with the vendor's size, since that is often a retention story. And ask for it during a claim, when what actually matters is the policy language rather than the summary.

For routine vendors, the certificate plus the specific endorsements your contract requires is the right standard. Requesting policy documents from every landscaper and cleaning contractor creates a pile of paper nobody reviews, which is worse than a well-run certificate process.

Does a declarations page show additional insured status?

Only indirectly. The dec page does not name you. What it can show is the schedule of forms, and if CG 20 10, CG 20 26, CG 20 37 or a blanket additional insured endorsement appears there, the policy carries the mechanism. Whether it extends to you still depends on that endorsement's wording and, for blanket forms, on whether your written contract requires additional insured status. Reading the endorsement is the only way to be sure.

Does a certificate of insurance show the deductible?

No. The ACORD 25 has no deductible or self-insured retention field. A vendor with a $500,000 retention and a vendor with no deductible produce certificates that look the same. If retention matters for a given contract, you have to request the declarations page or ask the broker directly, because the certificate will never tell you.

Handling both documents without a spreadsheet

Most teams end up holding a mix: certificates for everyone, dec pages and endorsement copies for the vendors that matter. The work is the same either way, which is reading each document, checking limits and dates against what the contract requires, and noticing when something expires. Doing that by hand across a few hundred vendors is where compliance quietly stops happening.

COISoftware reads certificates, declarations pages and endorsement forms with AI, pulls the insurer, policy numbers, coverage types, limits and dates, checks them against the requirements you set, and chases renewals before coverage lapses. If you are a property manager reconciling a tenant's certificate against the insurance clause buried in their lease, an AI lease abstraction tool will pull those requirements out of the lease so you have something concrete to check the certificate against.

For the wider picture, how to verify a certificate of insurance covers confirming a document is genuine, and vendor insurance compliance software covers running the process across a full vendor list.

The short version

Request the certificate of insurance. It is the industry standard, it names you, it tracks your requirements, and it gets reissued at renewal. Treat the declarations page as a supporting document you request when a deductible, a self-insured retention, a named insured question or an endorsement schedule actually affects your risk. And for anything your contract genuinely requires, such as additional insured status or a waiver of subrogation, get the endorsement form itself, because neither the certificate nor the dec page is a substitute for the wording that creates the coverage.