What Is an Additional Insured Endorsement?

Additional insured endorsement is a form of extra liability coverage that protects others that live in your home but aren’t included in your original policy. Sound too good to be true? It's not! After all, home insurance is meant to protect you and your entire family from anything that comes your way.

But unfortunately, depending on your living situation, everyone in your household might not be covered. It’s a common misconception of traditional home insurance policies, but one that can be easily fixed with an endorsement.

Your entire family deserves to be protected, and that protection shouldn’t cost you an arm and a leg. Below, we help remove the confusion surrounding additional insured to determine if this is something you need for your family.

Key takeaways:

• An additional insured endorsement is a form of extra liability coverage that protects others that live in your home but aren’t included in your original policy.
• You can add this endorsement to your home insurance plan at any time, though it’s recommended to update this when you first purchase your policy to make sure there are no gaps in coverage.

What does additional insured mean?

An additional insured endorsement is a form of extra liability coverage that protects others that live in your home but aren’t included in your original policy. While blood-relatives, married partners and adopted children are all automatically included in most home insurance policies, various others won’t be. Below, we’ll break down who qualifies for additional insurance coverage. But first, it’s essential to understand why you might need this coverage. 

Say that a guest gets injured in your home and decides to sue. While you would be covered through your liability protection, someone who has a financial interest in your home (but isn’t included in your policy) would be forced to pay for legal and medical fees out of pocket. And while these occurrences are rare, they can be costly, so it’s better to be safe than sorry!

Who qualifies for additional insured coverage?

Anyone who lives in your home, or has a financial stake in your home, can typically qualify for additional insured status. Of course, if they’re your married partner, your blood relative or adopted child, they’ll already be included in your policy as long as your home is their primary residence. 

Other living situations you might encounter that qualify for additional insured coverage include: buying a home with your partner while unmarried, living with roommates or having a child attending college full time (and living on-campus).

Anyone not included in your original policy who lives in your home, or has a financial stake in your home, can qualify for additional insured status.

When to add an additional insured to your policy

You can add this endorsement to your home insurance plan at any time, though it’s recommended to update this when you first purchase your policy to make sure there are no gaps in coverage. But if you get a new roommate (who has a financial interest in your home) a few years into your mortgage or your kid goes off to school, adding them as additional insured is as easy as calling your insurance company.

Named insured vs. additional insured

On your declarations page, you’ll likely see two terms to describe who’s covered by your liability insurance: named insured and additional insured. Named insured refers to the policyholder and anyone related to them by marriage or blood. Additional insured is anyone you’ve added to your policy, which you want to be able to take advantage of the same general liability protection you receive as a named insured.

What kind of coverage will an additional insured have?

When adding an additional insured to your home insurance plan, they’ll receive the same liability coverage you have. This coverage includes financial protection should someone get injured in your home and decide to sue for lost wages, reimbursement for medical fees and even death benefits. It also helps you pay for any damage you accidentally make to someone else’s home. Their personal contents would also be protected, so any items damaged, lost or stolen qualify for a reimbursement or repair claim.

Additional insured endorsement cost

Adding this endorsement to your home insurance policy doesn’t cost too much, though its actual cost will vary by your insurance company and your policy limits. Since adding another person to your policy increases your risk of reaching your policy limit, you may need to expand that limit to make sure you don’t have to pay too much out of pocket.

Don’t wait until it’s too late to find out you don’t have the protection you thought you did. Get expert advice, answers to all your policy questions and even home maintenance assistance with Hippo insurance. Can’t get your insurance company on the phone? Give us a call instead; we always pick up.