A landlord asks to be added to your policy. The wording they use decides whether you have done them a courtesy or handed them your coverage.
What does additional insured actually mean?
An additional insured is covered for claims that arise out of your tenancy or your operations. If someone is injured because of something your business did, and the landlord is dragged into the suit, your policy responds for them. That is the normal and appropriate arrangement between a tenant and a landlord.
It is a limited grant, and the limit is the point. The landlord gets protection connected to you.
And an additional named insured?
That is a different animal. If the landlord is a co-insured or an additional named insured, your policy could be liable for claims against them that have nothing to do with your business at all. You have effectively lent them your program, including your limits and your loss history.
Their claims then become your claims. They sit on your loss runs, they affect your renewal, and they can affect whether you are marketable at all.
Which one do people ask for?
Frequently the wrong one, and usually not deliberately. Lease templates get copied between deals and the language drifts. When I see additional named insured in a requirement, my first move is to ask whether they actually mean additional insured. In most cases they do, and the wording gets corrected without argument.
There is a second reason to care. Additional insured status is normally granted by a blanket endorsement that applies wherever you have agreed in a written contract, which means it can be arranged once rather than negotiated deal by deal. Named insured status is always a specific, deliberate act.
What I recommend
- Read the exact words in the requirement. Additional insured and additional named insured are not synonyms.
- Push back politely on additional named insured requests and ask what the counterparty is actually trying to protect against.
- Keep a list of who is on your policies and why, and review it annually — parties accumulate.
- Send me the requirement wording and I will tell you what it does before you agree to it.
The short version
An additional insured is covered for claims arising out of your operations. A named insured is covered for everything, including claims that have nothing to do with you. Agree to the first, question the second.
If you have any questions, feel free to reach out at any time.
