COISoftware collects a certificate of insurance from every general contractor, design firm, consultant and trade contractor on a development, reads each ACORD 25 with AI, checks the limits against what your project and lender require, and confirms the owner is named as additional insured. Built for US real estate developers, property developers and construction owners running ground-up and major renovation projects. Upload a COI above to see it read in seconds.
Last updated July 2026
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A general contractor, a design firm and a consultant carry very different risk, so developers require different coverage by party. These are common starting points, not legal or insurance advice.
| Project party | Coverage commonly required | Why the owner requires it |
|---|---|---|
| General contractor | General liability with completed operations, workers comp, commercial auto, umbrella, owner as additional insured | The GC runs the site, so most construction claims flow through its coverage first |
| Architects and design engineers | Professional liability or errors and omissions, general liability | A design defect is answered by professional liability, not the general liability a contractor carries |
| Trade contractors hired directly | General liability with completed operations, workers comp, umbrella, additional insured | Directly contracted trades put their exposure on the owner without proper endorsements |
| Environmental and geotechnical consultants | Professional liability, contractors pollution liability, general liability | Soil, environmental and remediation work carries pollution and professional exposure |
| Enrolled contractors on an OCIP or CCIP | Off-wrap commercial auto, professional liability, pollution, tools and equipment | The wrap covers general liability and excess, not the coverage each party keeps outside it |
| Construction manager and owner rep | Professional liability, general liability, additional insured | Management and oversight decisions carry a professional-liability exposure of their own |
Set requirements to your own development agreements, loan documents, wrap-up program and state law. Limits and coverages shown are common starting points, not legal or insurance advice.
A developer sits at the top of the contract chain. You hire a general contractor, a design team and often consultants directly, your lender writes its own insurance requirements into the loan, and every dollar of exposure that is not properly insured downstream can climb back to the project entity that owns the asset. The certificates arrive project by project, not on a tidy annual renewal cycle, which is what makes them easy to lose.
Your development agreement and loan require the general contractor, architect and engineers to carry specific coverage and name the owner and lender as additional insured. If a contractor shows up short on a limit or an endorsement and something goes wrong, the claim does not stay downstream. It lands on the project entity that holds title, which is exactly what the certificate program is meant to prevent.
Architects, engineers and other design consultants carry professional liability, or errors and omissions, that responds to a design defect claim a general liability policy will not answer. A developer that checks only general liability on the design team leaves the most expensive kind of construction claim, a defective design that has to be rebuilt, sitting uncovered.
Construction lenders require builders risk, specific liability limits, and the lender named as additional insured or loss payee before and during a draw. Proving to the lender that every required certificate is on file and current is its own tracking job on top of the owner requirements, and a missing certificate can hold up a draw.
On an OCIP or CCIP wrap-up, general liability and excess are consolidated for enrolled contractors, but each contractor still carries off-wrap coverage such as commercial auto, professional liability, pollution and tools, and every party still has to be enrolled and verified. The wrap sponsor tracks enrollment and off-wrap certificates for every contractor on the job, which is more record-keeping, not less.
A property manager tracks the same vendors year over year. A developer onboards a new cast of contractors and consultants for each development, each with its own policy dates that rarely line up with the schedule. Tracking coverage against a construction timeline, where a policy can expire mid-build, is a different problem from an annual vendor list.
One project on a spreadsheet is manageable. Three or four developments running at once, each with a GC, a design team, consultants and a lender exhibit, is where renewals slip and additional insured wording goes unchecked. Proving after an incident or an audit that you verified a party means digging through email threads per project.
The certificate a contractor sends at contract signing is a snapshot from that day, not proof of coverage through closeout. Confirming that every contractor and consultant bought the right coverage, including professional liability for the design team and builders risk where the lender requires it, kept it current through the build, and named the owner and lender as additional insured is repetitive, rules-based work across a changing project roster. That is exactly what software handles well. Certificate of insurance management software reads every certificate, checks it against your project and loan requirements, and flags anything short, expired or missing, so a development team is not chasing PDFs between draws.
COISoftware reads every contractor, design-firm and consultant certificate, checks it against your project and lender requirements, confirms the owner and lender are named as additional insured, and gives you one view of insurance compliance across every development.
Upload a certificate from a general contractor, architect, engineer, consultant or trade contractor and the AI pulls the insurer, policy numbers, coverage types, limits, effective and expiration dates, and additional insured status, even from scans and phone photos.
Set professional liability, or errors and omissions, for the architect and engineers, and every design-team certificate is checked for the coverage a design-defect claim actually needs, not just the general liability a contractor carries.
See whether the owner entity and the construction lender are named as additional insured or loss payee on each policy, so the status your development agreement and loan require is verified rather than assumed.
On a wrap-up, track which contractors are enrolled and check each one for the off-wrap coverage the wrap does not include, such as commercial auto, professional liability and pollution, so nothing falls between the wrap and the certificate.
Track every contractor and consultant across every active project in one dashboard, filter by development or party type, and give the lender a clean, current compliance record whenever a draw requires it.
When a contractor or consultant certificate is about to expire mid-build, COISoftware chases for a renewed COI automatically, so no party is working the site on a policy that lapsed between milestones.
COISoftware reads the ACORD 25 and the broader certificate of liability insurance, then ties every certificate into full certificate of insurance management software and ongoing vendor insurance compliance tracking. When a certificate looks off, the same checks behind certificate of insurance verification flag it for review. The general contractor tracks its own trades the same way with COI tracking for general contractors, and once the asset opens, the operating team moves to COI tracking for commercial real estate.
Standing up insurance compliance on a new project follows the same four steps.
Enter the coverages and limits your development agreement and loan require, and vary them by party so the general contractor, the design team and each consultant get the right rule. Include professional liability for the design firms, builders risk where the lender requires it, and the additional insured wording that names the owner and lender.
Tip: Copy the insurance exhibit straight from the loan agreement so lender requirements are tracked from day one.
Request a COI from each contractor and consultant or upload the certificates you receive. The AI reads every one automatically, so onboarding a full project team does not turn into hours of manual data entry before notice to proceed.
Each certificate is checked against the requirement for that party. Short limits, missing professional liability, absent builders risk, unenrolled wrap contractors and a missing additional insured endorsement are flagged before the party is cleared to start.
Automated reminders chase any expiring certificate on any development, so coverage stays current from groundbreaking through closeout without a project manager tracking policy dates by hand.
Anyone responsible for proving that every contractor and consultant on a development carries the coverage the contracts and the lender require.
A developer needs to know, before notice to proceed, that the general contractor and design team carry the coverage the development agreement requires and name the owner entity as additional insured. COISoftware turns each requirement into a live status, so the development team sees a clear pass or flag instead of opening a stale certificate and hoping the limits still match the loan.
An owner sponsoring an OCIP still enrolls every contractor and verifies the off-wrap coverage the wrap does not include. The same dashboard tracks enrollment and off-wrap certificates by project, and our guide to wrap-up insurance, OCIP vs CCIP explains where the certificate work still lives. Trade contractors are verified the same way as subcontractor COI tracking for contractors.
The team giving the lender a compliance record at each draw is often the one holding the risk if a certificate is missing. To collect, verify and monitor every certificate in one place, pair this with vendor insurance compliance software, and if you are comparing platforms, our best COI tracking software roundup walks through the options honestly.
Most developers require the general contractor to carry commercial general liability of at least $1 million per occurrence and $2 million aggregate with completed operations, workers compensation, commercial auto, and an umbrella, and to name the owner and lender as additional insured on a primary and noncontributory basis. Higher-value projects and lender terms often push those limits higher.
Being named as additional insured gives the owner entity access to a contractor policy and defense costs when a claim arises out of that contractor work on the project. Listed only as certificate holder, the owner gets a copy of the certificate but no coverage. Development agreements require additional insured status, backed by an endorsement, so the owner is protected rather than just informed.
Architects and engineers should carry professional liability, also called errors and omissions, which responds to a claim that a design defect caused loss or has to be rebuilt. General liability alone does not answer a design-defect claim. Developers verify professional liability limits on every design firm and consultant, because a defective design is one of the most expensive construction claims.
An OCIP, or owner controlled insurance program, is a wrap-up the owner sponsors to cover general liability and excess for all enrolled contractors on a project. A CCIP, or contractor controlled insurance program, is the same idea sponsored by the general contractor instead. In both, each enrolled contractor still carries off-wrap coverage such as commercial auto and professional liability, so certificate tracking continues.
Yes. A wrap-up consolidates general liability and excess for enrolled contractors, but it does not cover commercial auto, professional liability, pollution, or tools and equipment, which each contractor still carries. The wrap sponsor tracks enrollment for every party and verifies the off-wrap certificates, so tracking does not go away on an OCIP or CCIP, it changes shape.
Construction lenders write insurance requirements into the loan, usually builders risk, specific liability limits, and the lender named as additional insured or loss payee, and they check compliance at each draw. Developers meet them by copying the loan insurance exhibit into their requirements, collecting the matching certificates, and keeping a current record they can show the lender to release a draw.
Pricing depends on how many contractors, consultants and projects you track and whether you want self-serve software or a managed service. COISoftware lists transparent monthly pricing and offers a free tier, so a developer can start reading and verifying project certificates without a sales call. You can test it on your own certificates before paying anything.
How the GC verifies and tracks its own subcontractor certificates.
Track tenant and vendor COIs once the asset is built and operating.
Verify trade contractor certificates before a crew mobilizes.
