Working with Certificates -- Overview

A certificate is a form issued as proof that an insured has a policy in force at the time the certificate is issued. A certificate:

  • Indicates that a policy has been issued;
  • Specifies the type(s) of coverage; and
  • Indicates the amount of coverage provided.

Certificates of Liability Insurance

ACORD 25 certificates are most commonly issued for commercial accounts in casualty situations when the insured requests proof of issued casualty coverages to a third-party or parties.

For example, at the request of a general contractor your agency insures, you might issue Certificates of Liability Insurance to a town, leasing companies, and the like for a municipal project on which the contractor is working.

Four Versions of Certificate of Liability Insurance Supported

The four Certificate of Liability Insurance forms supported in the Form Version drop down menu are 07/97, 08/01, 09/01 and the 09/09.

If the 03/93 or 07/90 versions still exist in the Printed Forms Maintenance record, they will be removed from the forms maintenance record as they are no longer supported. You will still have the Print option available for any of these older Certificates that can be accessed in Archived forms.

The Certificate of Liability Insurance listed in the first line of the Printed Forms Maintenance Page. is the default selection when you create certificates. You can select any other form version listed in the record on the Form Version drop down menu in the Other section of the Policies tab of the Certificate Wizard.

If the "Always Use the Most Current ACORD Form Version?" option is selected on the Sagitta Browser Options page,

  • The program will check the first line of the Certificate of Insurance Forms record and will use that form version for the default.
  • The Form Version drop-down menu will not be available on the Policies tab and no other versions of the form will be available for selection.

If you decide you want this new version as your default, you will need to enter it in line 1 of the Forms record on the Printed Forms Maintenance page.

If you do not want agency staff members to ever use a version of the form, remove those versions by deleting the line from Printed Forms Maintenance.

If you use the 07/97 version, the NAIC and Additional Interests fields are hidden, as they do not apply to this version.

The Additional Insured and Insurer Letter field, unique to the 07/97  and 09/09 version, do not appear on the 08/01 and the 2009/01 versions.

Certificates of Property Insurance

ACORD 24 certificates are most commonly issued for commercial accounts when the receiver of the form wants to verify that property coverage exists on a policy and has no direct interest in the policy.

One Version of Certificate of Property Insurance Supported

Currently, the 09/09 version of the ACORD 24 Certificate of Property is the only one supported

Create Certificates Using the Certificate Wizard

You can create certificates using the Certificate wizard, an interactive utility that presents a series of five tabs in sequence, which you complete in order to create the certificate.

The tabs provide in the wizard provided you with a place to add the information required to issue the certificate(s) and a chance to change options previously set on the, if you have personalized appropriately.

You can also use the Role Based Security Page to control access to the Certificate process.

For detailed information about the Certificate Wizard, start with Creating a New Certificate Template.

Where certificate information comes from

Certificate information comes from the:

  • Basic Client page;

  • Policy Detail and related pages that you complete when you enter Policy information;

  • Various Certificate Wizard tabs, includingPolicies,Group Codes,Additional Interests/Holders, andSupplemental Names, which you complete as part of the Certificate Wizard.

To ensure that as much information as possible flows to certificates, enter as much detail as possible on those pages and tabs.

For example, if you complete the Description of Operations field on the Certificate Holder page when you enter Certificate Holder information, the Description of Operations entered defaults to the Preview page for the Subcert.

Additional Other Interests and Certificate Holders

An Additional Other Interest (AOI), is a party or entity that has an interest in a policy, often because that party or entity provided financing for an insured property or vehicle.

For example, GMAC (General Motors Acceptance Corporation) might be an

On the Sagitta system, an Additional Other Interest is "attached" to a policy. (Information about the AOI is entered on theACORD Certificate Policy Selections Page -- AOI/Holders Tab.)

A certificate holder is an individual or entity requiring proof of coverage carried by the insured. The certificate is issued on behalf of the entity insured by the issuing company.

On the Sagitta system, a certificate holder is "attached" to a client rather than a policy. (Information about the holder is entered on the Certificate Holder Information page. Access this page by clicking Holders on the Client Primary Navigation for a specific client.)

A certificate holder can be an AOI, such as GMAC, or an individual or entity entered as a certificate holder for a specific client.

For example, if Smith Electrical Contractors, Inc., one of your insureds, regularly does work for the City of Hartford, you might regularly issue certificates to the city to prove that Smith has the requisite amount of liability insurance. You would add the City of Hartford as a Certificate holder for Smith.

Enter holder information in your Sagitta system only if you plan to "re-use" it at a later date. If you plan to issue a certificate to a specific holder only once, you need not enter the holder information in your database.

A certificate holder can be:

  • Specific to one client (e.g., a homeowner for whom an insured is working. Or,
  • Common to many clients (e.g., a bank or finance company).

Certificate templates and certificates attached to the template

Sagitta has two different types of certificates: Certificate Templates and certificates attached to the Certificate templates.

A Certificate Template is a certificate used as a basis, or shell, for creating certificates for multiple holders, and attaching additional interests or holders to certificates. You can issue a certificate to a:

  • Holder previously entered in your database, by selecting that holder's name from a list, or
  • Non-holder by simply typing the name and address of that holder on the Certificate Preview Page.

A certificate attached to the Certificate Template is one certificate or one of several certificates issued to multiple holders; it may be issued many times during the policy term.

You can get a list of all certificates for a client from the Basic Client page by clicking the Forms option and then selecting ACORD 24 Certificates or ACORD 25 Certificates option on the Client Primary Navigation. The ACORD 24 or ACORD 25 Certificates grid appears.

Certificate templates are displayed with the Type "MS", and the Template description "Template."

Certificates attached to the Certificate template are displayed with the Type "MS", and the Template Description that you were required to enter in the "Template Description field" on the ACORD Certificate Policy Selections Page -- AOI/Holders Tab.

Certificates personalization

You can use the Certificate of Insurance/Evidence of Property Personalization page, the Role Based Security Maintenance page, or a combination of the options on both to control staff access to Certificates.

The options available on the Certificate of Insurance/Evidence of Property Personalization page affect how you can create certificates using the Certificate wizard.

These options affect:

  • Supplemental Names, and how and where they are used;
  • the inclusion of the Cancellation Section amendment on certificates;
  • whether applications, binders, and cancelled or expired policies are included when certificates are created;
  • which staff members or staff members assigned to roles can view options that are not displayed to other staff members; and
  • which information is included in the Description of Operations for Certificates and Evidence of Property forms.  

The selections that you make here can simplify your certificate creation process.

You can also use Role-Based Security to control access to certificates. For more information, see Role Based Security Page.

On this page, there are options at the client level and the policy level to control the:

  • Cancellation Amendment option on the Holder and on the policy-level AOI;
  • No. Cancellation Days option on the Holder and on the AOI; and
  • No. Days for Non-Payment on the Holder and AOI for certificates.