Primary and Non-Contributory General Liability Insurance Endorsements

I'm a contractor and my client is requesting a general liability insurance certificate that includes a primary and non-contributory general liability insurance endorsement. What does that mean??

Primary and non-contributory general liability insurance endorsements means, if more than one insurance policy is involved in a claim, yours will be the one that pays first regardless of what the others do. And in your case, the client probably wants you to be named as "additional insured" as well, so that your policy will defend and indemnify (protect) him before any other policy gets involved.

Some general liability policies have language making their coverage "excess" over any other collectible insurance.   So when a claim does occur, the adjusters and attorneys get together to determine how the claim is distributed among the carriers involved.

This process is often cumbersome and controversial, so the primary and non-contributory endorsement does simplify things.

Basically, the purpose of this endorsement is to keep your client's insurance company out of the claim, and by remaining out of the claim the client will probably pay less for his own general liability policy.

Conversely there may be an additional charge to you (the contractor) for the primary and non-contributory endorsement.

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More information about general liability insurance endorsements