Compliant doesn't mean protected. Full policy reviews for high-risk scopes of work.
Subcontractors and vendors can have a compliant COI but a policy that creates critical coverage gaps. Our Construction Risk Insurance Specialists audit every line of the policy to identify and close gaps before a claim exposes them.
Trusted by general contractors, carriers, public entities, and risk managers overseeing high-exposure work.
When a subcontractor on your site can generate a claim in the millions, the only way to know the policy responds is to read it: exclusions, conditions, endorsement language, and how primary, umbrella, and excess fit together. The certificate is a one-page summary. The policy is the contract.
Construction insurance has its own language, and we are fluent.
Comprehensive Policy Review is a full-scope audit. We assess every aspect of a third party's policy to confirm full compliance, coverage continuity, and protection across the work being performed.
We confirm the coverage sits on solid ground: a financially sound carrier, class codes that match the work, and policy terms that line up with the certificate. When the fundamentals don't fit the work, the policy can fail before any exclusion applies.
We verify the endorsements that carry the risk transfer, Additional Insured, Waiver of Subrogation, and Primary and Non-Contributory, and confirm they name the right entity and apply to your work. An endorsement shown on the certificate isn't the same as one that reads correctly and holds.
This is where coverage quietly disappears, from action-over and height exclusions to residential and habitational limitations on high-exposure work. We surface what's excluded before a claim does, not after.
For the highest-exposure work, we read the conditions and specialized language that decide whether a policy responds, including deductible structures, the definition of insured contract, and non-standard forms. These are the details that rarely surface until a loss is already in dispute.
Additional audit points added as your scope of work, jurisdiction, or risk profile requires.
Compliant on the certificate. Functionally uninsured in the policy.
This is a real General Liability policy our specialists reviewed for a subcontractor on a New York construction project. Identifying details removed, findings unaltered. The certificate cleared every requirement. The policy was a different story.
Each Occurance:
$1,000,000
General Aggregate:
$2,000,000
Products / Completed Operations:
$1,000,000
Form:
Occurrence
Additional Insured:
Indicated
Waiver of Subrogation:
Indicated
Dates:
Current
Limits adequate, dates current, the right endorsements indicated. This is where every COI tracking platform in the market stops.
Injuries to employees of any contractor or sub on site:
Excluded (overrides separation of insureds — the core of your action-over protection in New York)
Any fall, from any height:
Excluded (direct conflict with NY Labor Law §240)
Work on structures over three stories:
Excluded
Four of New York City's five boroughs:
Excluded entirely
Slip and fall (the most common jobsite injury):
Reduced to $35,000
Work the policy wasn't specifically rated for:
Uninsured
The additional insured and waiver endorsements were present and correctly written. The policy passed every certificate test. But these exclusions are embedded in the base coverage for — no endorsement can cure them. The coverage the GC believed they had wasn't there.
A certificate tracker would have logged this policy as compliant and moved on. Our specialists named every exclusion, attached the reason, and surfaced the decision the GC needed to makebefore the subcontractor set foot on site.
The depth required for scopes of work that produce the largest claims
Comprehensive Policy Review is the standard for construction, capital projects and third-party relationships that depend on bulletproof risk transfer.
The right depth gets matched to the exposure. Our team helps
you set the level for each relationship across your operation.
The platform your policy reviews run on.
Docutrax is the system of record for your third-party policy compliance. Every policy reviewed, every finding logged, every resolution retained and time-stamped for the full life of your exposure.
A claim can surface years after the work is done, long after the project closes. Be prepared with the proof of what was covered, what we found, and what we resolved. Your PM system won't have it. Their brokers and agents won't keep it. We will.
Built for how you want to operate.
Comprehensive Policy Review is available across three engagement models. Same platform, same CRIS-certified depth. The choice is how much of the operation you want us to run.
What each level of review actually surfaces.
Certificate, endorsement, and full policy review answer different questions. This is what each one catches, so you can match the depth to the exposure.
Certificate Review
Endorsement Review
Comprehensive Policy Review
Certificate verification against requirements
Renewal tracking and active remediation
Endorsement form authentication
Form edition specificity (CG 20 10 04 13 vs 10 01)
Full GL policy read
Umbrella and excess policy review
Critical exclusion analysis
NY Labor Law and action-over screening
Advanced audit points (manuscript forms, deductible liquidity)
CRIS-certified Account Manager
Forensic depth, run by specialists who read policies for a living.
Comprehensive Policy Review,
run for the operations that depend on it.
Common questions about working with Docutrax.
Why should I review policies instead of COIs?
Because the certificate is a summary and the policy is the contract; only one of them governs when a claim arrives. Policies sold into the construction market routinely carry exclusions and restrictive definitions that move jobsite losses back to the GC and the owner, and none of it appears on a certificate. Reviewing the COI confirms coverage was purchased. Reviewing the policy tells you what was actually bought.
What does a full policy review actually involve?
A licensed specialist reads the complete policy, all 60 to 300 pages of it, against your contract and the actual work being performed. Every exclusion, condition, definition, and limitation is evaluated for what it does to your protection on that project, in that jurisdiction, at that scope. The output is a documented determination: where the coverage meets your requirements, where it falls short, and what has to change. From there, remediation begins, and we work it until the gap is closed.
What kinds of problems does the review find?
Exclusions and restrictions engineered to shift losses upstream: injuries to a contractor's own workers, height and story limitations, designated-work and classification carve-outs, definitions that quietly narrow who counts as an insured or what counts as covered work. It also finds the subtler category: policy language that satisfies your written requirements but still leaves you exposed on this particular project and scope of work. Most of the policies we review at this depth fail on issues no certificate or endorsement check would surface.
How do you know which policy issues actually matter for our work?
This is not just a policy review; it's a project-specific policy review. Our proprietary evaluation methodology reads the policy against your contractual requirements first, then goes further: the project, the location, the scope of work, and your risk management strategy and risk tolerance all shape what the language means for you. The same exclusion can be harmless on one job and fatal on another, and a review that stops at the contract can't tell you which.
Who performs full policy reviews?
CRIS-certified Construction Risk Insurance Specialists, licensed and always US-based, supported by licensed P&C; professionals across the operation. Highly-trained reviewers who understand completed operations risk, additional insured scope, and the policy language that determines whether a carrier accepts or denies a tender. Over 300,000 reviews across 10+ years, every determination documented.
When is full policy review the right call?
For construction activity and high-risk scopes of work, especially in jurisdictions where statute shifts jobsite liability upstream and the policy language decides whether it stays there. If a loss in the relationship could reach seven figures and land on your program, the policy deserves to be read before the work begins. For relationships outside that profile, certificate and endorsement review carry the program, and we'll tell you which is which.
What happens when the review finds a problem?
The sub or vendor receives a cure notice: what the policy fails to provide, what the contract requires, what needs to change. From there, our team drives the correction: working with the third party and their agent, and taking the conversation to whatever level it takes to get compliant coverage in place. Every step is documented. Your team sees the status. We close the coverage gaps.
How does pricing work?
Three independent dimensions: how much of the operation you place with our team, how deep the review goes, and the size of your third-party population. Adjust any one without changing the others. No surprise fees. See Ways to Work With Us or talk to our team.
Bring forensic policy review under one managed operation.
Start with a conversation with a team that reads construction policies for a living. We'll walk through your third-party base, your trade mix, and your exposure profile, then show you how we'd run policy review the way your operation demands.
Send us a few of your subcontractors' policies and we'll review them, free, and show you exactly what your certificates are hiding.