I often get this question with the additional insureds certificates and what they mean and what they are. The biggest one I want to discuss is the Waiver of Subrogation, primarily with workers’ comp. A Waiver of Subrogation means the insurance company waives its right to subrogate money from you if there is a claim.
Workers Compensation Requires Blanket Waiver
In contractors’ insurance, it’s often when we’re doing worker’s comp; they’ll come in and say, “I need a Waiver of Subrogation with this policy.” If you work for a general contractor as a subcontractor, they may want a Waiver of Subrogation for worker’s comp. The Waiver of Subrogation tells the subcontractor to waive the right to subrogate money if he gets injured on the GC’s job or the prime’s job to recover the money when his employee gets hurt. And usually, it means that his insurance company is waiving rights to subrogate for a claim that came in.
Liability Also Has This Endorsement
It’s essential in worker’s comp; most insurance providers on worker’s comp ask for it. We also have a Waiver of Subrogation Endorsement for liability insurance, which means the same thing. Suppose a claim comes up from one of the subcontractors, and they give a Waiver of Subrogation to the GC they’re working for, and they have a claim. In that case, it’s saying we’ll waive our rights to subrogate money if we can somehow say that the GC was at fault for whatever reason; maybe the general contractor project was an unsafe environment, so the GC should have to pay part of the claim. It’s a gray area that companies do use to recover funds from. We could talk about it all day about what it means or how it goes, but I get that question a lot by folks asking, well, what is this Waiver of Subrogation?
Protect Everyone On The Project
So that’s why we’d make this post and let you know that Waiver of Subrogation is primarily for workers comp. And the idea is that your subcontractors, or if you’re giving it to anybody that’s asking for it, whether it’s a client or a company you’re working for, that we’re going to waive our right if our employees get hurt on this site or this project that we’re working on to come back and subrogate any monies that would’ve happened during that job. It’s essential. It’s risk management. It protects you. It protects them. It protects your clients. So, Waiver of Subrogation, we’re waiving the right to subrogate monies to come after you if there is a claim. I hope that helps.
Please contact or email me if you have any questions regarding this subject matter.