Purchasing general liability insurance coverage for your business is a no-brainer — but it can be a little tricky to determine who exactly needs to be included in your policy. In addition to the policyholder, business insurance policies can also cover additional insureds, such as a client or contractor. This guide will cover how additional insureds work and how to add them to your general liability policy.
What is an additional insured?
An additional insured is a party added to a liability policy as an insured for a specific job, activity, or location. This person or entity has a business relationship with the policyholder. Adding them as an additional insured extends coverage to them if a covered claim or lawsuit is brought against them for injury or damage related to their work with you on that specific job, activity or location.
Why add an additional insured to your policy?
Adding an additional insured to your policy can help ensure that they’re protected from risk in the event of a claim. You may want to add them to your policy because you have a business relationship with them or because it’s a part of your contract or agreement with them.
Who is considered a crew member?
Crew members aren’t the same as additional insureds. Your crew includes anyone who acts at your direction or collaborates with you on activities covered by your liability policy.
Why add crew to your general liability policy?
While adding additional insureds to your policy protects the individuals you add, adding crew to your policy protects you and your business. Adding crew to your general liability policy can help to make sure that if a member of your crew makes a mistake or is negligent, your liability policy will respond if the result of their actions is a covered cause of loss.
Adding additional insureds to your general liability insurance policy
Once you’ve identified the additional insureds who should be included on your policy, adding them is easy. You can add additional insureds in the Thimble mobile app during or after purchase by following these simple steps:
- While you are on the policy builder, tap “additional insureds” near the bottom and then tap “Add additional insured.”
- Search and select the organization you would like to add from our list, or tap “Add new” to create your own additional insureds.
- Include the name of your additional insured as you would like it to appear on your certificate of insurance. You also have the option to include a label for your reference (such as a project name or job number), an email address, a description of the covered operations, and a certificate holder.
- Enter your additional insured’s email address, and they will receive a PDF copy of your certificate of insurance and their additional insured endorsement.
- After adding the additional insured and entering all relevant information, tap “Save additional insured.”
- Add new additional insureds by tapping “Additional insureds” on the policy builder and then tapping “Manage additional insureds.”
The right insurance coverage for your business
At Thimble, we make it quick and easy to secure general liability insurance coverage for your small business. Whether you need coverage by the job, month, or year, our flexible, scalable policies can help make sure you have the coverage you need to do your job. You can even add additional insureds to most policies at no extra cost.
Click on “Get a quote” on the site or the app, answer a few questions, and you can get a general liability insurance policy in just a few minutes. That goes for businesses of any size and every stage. Start with Thimble and watch your business grow!
