Contractor insurance guides
Six guides on the parts of this that are not about your trade: the paperwork a general contractor demands, the words in the contract, how the number is built, and what a licensing board can require before you pull a permit.
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What insurance does a contractor need?
Answered by business shape rather than by trade: working solo, the first employee, the first sub, the first commercial contract, and the states that mandate coverage.
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Certificates of insurance: what they prove and what they do not
The ACORD 25 says on its own face that it confers no rights. What a certificate holder gets, what an additional insured gets, and why the endorsement is the thing.
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"Bonded and insured": what the bond actually covers
The janitorial bond is employee theft coverage, not liability insurance. Who requires it, what it pays, and why the phrase misleads the customers it is aimed at.
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General contractor, subcontractor, employee
Who holds the contract, what the IRS common-law test decides about control, and which insurance question follows from each answer.
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What sets a contractor's insurance cost
Classification, payroll as the exposure basis, the premium audit that arrives after the year ends, and the experience modifier that follows a claim into later years. No premium figures.
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Electrical contractor insurance requirements by state
Which state boards condition an electrical license on liability insurance or a bond, and the amounts read in each rule rather than summarized from a roundup.
Looking for your trade?
The guides above apply across the trades. For the exposures and the licensing that belong to one of them, start at the trades index, or go straight to general contractors, roofers, electricians, or plumbers.
Coverage explainers sit at the coverage hub, and the Texas work is at Texas contractor insurance.