Your contractor's insurance documents were rejected — what we need and why

Last updated: September 1, 2026

Applies to: Staffing partners placing US independent contractors. W-2 employees are covered by Ascen's own insurance and never need to provide a certificate, so this does not apply to them.

Summary: Every independent contractor uploads a Certificate of Insurance (COI) before they can start, and it is checked against the coverage their IC agreement requires. Two things account for most rejections: the policy dates on the certificate have already passed, and workers' compensation coverage is missing. A rejection is not a judgement about your contractor — it means a required line is absent or expired on the document we were given.

Why a certificate gets sent back

In order of how often we see them:

  1. The policy has expired. We read the effective and expiration dates printed on the certificate. A contractor may well have current coverage and have uploaded an old certificate — that still fails, because the document is the evidence.

  2. No workers' compensation coverage. This is required for US independent contractors even where state law would let an individual exempt themselves. It is a condition of our own insurance programme rather than a statement about anyone's classification.

  3. A required coverage line is missing or the limit is too low. Commercial general liability, umbrella/excess liability, and errors & omissions all carry minimum limits. A common one: the certificate shows general liability but the Umbrella/Excess section is blank, so an umbrella limit requirement cannot be evidenced.

  4. The certificate does not cover the right entity. The named insured needs to be the contractor or their business, not a client or another agency.

The full table of required coverages and minimum limits is in the contractor-facing article Insurance requirements for independent contractors — that is the one to forward to your contractor, because it is written for them and their insurance broker can work straight from it.

What to do when a contractor of yours is rejected

  1. Read the rejection message. It names the specific coverage or limit that could not be evidenced, which is usually enough for the contractor's broker to fix it in one call.

  2. Ask for an updated certificate showing active policy dates, plus separate evidence of workers' compensation if that is what is missing.

  3. Have it uploaded, or email it to support@ascen.com and we will upload and review it. We can also contact your contractor directly to sort out the documents if that is easier — just ask.

Once the documents evidence the required coverage, we approve them and the requirement clears.

If this keeps happening across your contractors

A repeated pattern usually means expectations are being set before placement rather than a problem with any one contractor. Two things help most:

  • Send Insurance requirements for independent contractors to candidates before they accept, so a missing coverage line surfaces while there is still time to buy it rather than on their start date.

  • Ask for the certificate at the same time as the rest of onboarding, not after. An insurance document that needs a broker to reissue it is one of the slower items to fix.

If a contractor genuinely cannot obtain one of the required coverages, tell us before the start date rather than after — email support@ascen.com. We would rather work the problem early than hold a start.

Related articles