5 ways tracking Certificates of Insurance will reduce your risk exposure.

1. You will obtain organizational awareness and buy-in.

What gets talked about gets paid attention to. Because adopting a certificate of insurance tracking program impacts various parts of the organization – legal, financial and operational at minimum - their needs and thoughts will be brought to bear on the discussion; they will become part of the solution and ultimately have a stake in the game. If their fingerprints are on they will have to own it.

2. The process of establishing coverage requirements forces a risk assessment.

By formally adopting a set of coverage requirements aligned with the risk, you will be obligated to review current practices, eliminate inconsistencies, and create risk control guidelines. We have seen time and again that this inherently streamlines business processes, creates order and imposes rationale on what is often an improvisational process.

3. You'll get current, more accurate COIs.

One of the complaints often heard about certificates of insurance is that we can only be sure they are accurate on the day they were issued. After that, who knows? The insurance could have been canceled thereafter and no notice was issued. Okay, but consider this - it is said that more than 70% of certificates of insurance submitted by vendors and tenants do not meet the insurance coverage requirements of the contract. So, if you actually check for compliance, and demand the deficiencies be remedied, you will automatically receive new COIs with up-to-date information.

4. You can measure results and adjust accordingly.

What gets tracked can be measured, and what is measured can impose accountability. Powerful stuff.

5. Once committed to the program, you will have to get it done.

It's one thing to know what to do, it's another to do it. Give it a try but be honest with yourself. If you don't have the internal resources, knowledge and time to properly track your certificates of insurance then you will need to get professional assistance. Either way, you're now in the game and the work must get done.

As you see, the consequences of beginning a certificate of insurance tracking program will put wheels in motion that provide value to the organization not only from improved risk management, but also in ways you might not have imagined...