What is additional insured for completed operations (CG 20 37)?
It extends additional insured status to a party — usually the general contractor or the owner — for claims arising out of your work after that work is finished. It is a separate endorsement from the one covering work in progress, and a policy can carry one without the other.
Tell us the situation.
A licensed human replies the same business day — not an auto-responder, and not five producers calling at once. We shop it across our carriers and tell you if the policy you already have is the right one.
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The detail
ISO form CG 20 37 grants additional insured status with respect to the products-completed operations hazard arising out of the named insured’s work.
ISO CGL endorsement CG 20 37
ISO form CG 20 10 grants additional insured status for ongoing operations, and does not extend to the completed operations hazard — which is why contracts requiring both name both.
ISO CGL endorsement CG 20 10
What this means for you
- This is the endorsement most often missing, and the one whose absence surfaces last. Construction defect claims arrive years after handover, by which point the policy that should have carried it has renewed several times.
- Cheaper markets frequently exclude the completed operations hazard, or will write additional insured status for ongoing operations only. The premium difference is real and so is the reason for it — you are being quoted a narrower policy, not a better price.
- Check the form number, not the word. "Additional insured" on a certificate does not distinguish between the two, and the two are what the contract is distinguishing between.
- If your work is finished and the additional insured endorsement was ongoing-operations only, the general contractor is not covered for the claim they are about to tender to you. That conversation goes badly.
Related questions
- Why do contracts ask for both CG 20 10 and CG 20 37?
- Because between them they cover the whole life of the work. CG 20 10 responds while the job is in progress; CG 20 37 responds to claims arising from the finished work. A general contractor being sued three years after handover needs the second one, and a policy carrying only the first leaves them to fund their own defence and then come looking for you.
- How long does completed operations coverage need to last?
- Long enough to outlive the statute of repose for construction defect in the state where the work is, which is commonly a period of years and varies considerably. This is why contracts often require the coverage to be maintained for a stated number of years after completion — and why letting the policy lapse or moving to a carrier that excludes the hazard can breach a contract you signed long ago.
- My quote is much cheaper than the others. Should I check this?
- Yes, and this specifically. A materially cheaper contractor policy is usually cheaper for a reason that is written down somewhere in it — commonly a completed operations exclusion, a residential or tract housing exclusion, or an additional insured form that only covers ongoing work. Compare the endorsements, not the premiums.
Need this handled?
We do the filings, and we place the accounts other brokers decline — lapsed authority, claims history, new ventures. Tell us the situation and a licensed human replies the same business day.