ACORD forms are the standardised insurance documents maintained by ACORD, the industry body that has produced them since 1970. The ACORD 25, the Certificate of Liability Insurance, is the one most brokerages produce daily. In Canada the equivalent standardisation runs through CSIO rather than ACORD.
Updated September 2026.
Why brokers care
The form is standardised. The information inside it is not. Two certificates on the same ACORD 25 can describe the same coverage in different words, because the form governs the layout and not the language. That is why checking a certificate cannot be reduced to matching boxes, and why a standard form does not remove the need to read the policy behind it.
What to check
- That the correct form is used for the jurisdiction, ACORD or CSIO
- That the description of operations box does not contradict the endorsements
- Whether wording in that box is being relied on in place of an endorsement
- That the form has not been altered, which invalidates it
- The issuing date, since certificates are point-in-time statements
Common mistake
Relying on wording typed into the description of operations box. The form is standardised, the language inside it is not, and text in that box is not an endorsement.
Form handling at batch scale is covered in the certificate software guide.