General Liability Insurance in Missouri

Underwriting and cost considerations

Commercial general liability insurance covers a business's legal liability to third parties for bodily injury, property damage, and personal and advertising injury arising out of its premises, operations, products and completed work.

Coverage, exclusions and limits vary by carrier and policy form. Review the applicable policy language, and confirm requirements for your state and operations.

Certificates, endorsements, and contract requirements

This is the part of commercial insurance that businesses deal with weekly, and it is the part most often misunderstood. A certificate of insurance is evidence of coverage. It is a snapshot of what was in force on the day it was issued, and by its own terms it confers no rights and does not amend the policy. A certificate that lists someone as an additional insured does not make them one. Only an endorsement attached to the policy can do that. When a dispute arises after a loss, the certificate is not what gets read; the policy and its endorsements are.

Additional insured status extends your liability policy to protect another party, typically a customer, landlord, general contractor, or municipality, for liability arising out of your work. Two variations matter enormously. Coverage for ongoing operations applies while the job is in progress. Coverage for completed operations applies after the work is finished, which is exactly when construction defect and product claims tend to surface. Many contracts require both, and a form that provides only ongoing operations quietly fails the requirement. Contracts also frequently require that your coverage apply on a primary and non-contributory basis, meaning your policy responds first and does not ask the other party's insurer to share. That is a separate endorsement consideration from additional insured status itself.

A waiver of subrogation gives up your insurer's right to pursue recovery from the other party after paying a claim. It generally requires an endorsement, is applied per policy line, and often carries additional premium. Workers' compensation waivers are handled separately from general liability waivers, and because workers' compensation is regulated at the state level, availability and treatment vary by state.

Underneath all of this sits the hold harmless or indemnification clause, which is a contractual obligation you take on rather than an insurance term. General liability policies typically provide some coverage for liability assumed under an insured contract, but many states have anti-indemnity statutes that limit how far one party can be required to indemnify another for that party's own negligence, particularly in construction. Because those statutes differ, contract language should be reviewed by counsel for every state where you perform work.

The practical advice is simple and almost never followed: read the insurance requirements exhibit before you sign, and send it to your agent while you can still negotiate. Requirements that are impossible, unavailable for your class, or expensive are far easier to address before signature than after you have committed. A common example is a contract demanding additional insured status on a professional liability policy, which is generally not how those policies are written and is usually a point to negotiate rather than a request to fulfill.

The mirror image applies when you are the one hiring. Collect certificates and the actual additional insured endorsements from every subcontractor before they set foot on the job, require limits at least equal to what your own contracts demand of you, and retain those records. At audit, the cost of subcontractors for whom you cannot produce evidence of insurance is commonly treated as your own payroll or cost and charged accordingly, which turns a filing habit into a real number on an invoice.

• Keep your certificate holder list current. Certificates issued to former customers are often still being relied upon, and renewal certificates should go only to parties with a current contractual interest.

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