Certificate of insurance
A certificate of insurance is a document issued as evidence of property or casualty insurance coverage. It summarizes policy information but cannot amend the policy or give the holder rights the policy does not provide.
A certificate is evidence, not the insurance contract. New York’s certificate statute is unusually direct: it defines the document as evidence of coverage and prohibits it from changing the referenced policy. That distinction is why a counterparty that needs policy rights should ask for the appropriate endorsement, not just a certificate.
Sources
- Primary source: New York Insurance Law § 501 — Definitions — Defines a certificate of insurance as a document prepared or issued as evidence of property/casualty insurance coverage.
- Primary source: New York Insurance Law § 502 — Prohibitions — Bars a certificate from amending, extending, or altering policy coverage or conferring rights beyond the policy.