ACORD 28: the evidence of commercial property insurance, field by field

ACORD 28 is the Evidence of Commercial Property Insurance: a one-page form an insurance agent or broker issues to a lender, loss payee or other party with a financial interest in a commercial property. It shows that a property policy is in force, how much it covers and on what terms, and names the lender's interest and loan number. Like other ACORD certificates, it's issued as a matter of information only: the policy itself governs.

This guide covers what the form is, how it moves from agent to lender, the fields section by section, the checks to run against the loan and how to automate the review.

What is an ACORD 28?#

ACORD, the nonprofit that maintains the insurance industry's standard forms, describes the ACORD 27 and 28 as certificates of insurance made for parties with a financial interest in the insured property, usually lenders, who prefer the title "Evidence of" to "Certificate of". The current edition is ACORD 28 (2016/03), per ACORD's forms index revised in September 2026. It fits on one page and takes an ACORD 101 Additional Remarks Schedule when more room is needed. The older 2009/12 edition, shown in the header image, had a second page for remarks.

Each form covers one insurer: the form tells agents to complete a separate one for each company, so a property insured by several carriers arrives with several ACORD 28s. It's often confused with three other ACORD forms:

• ACORD 28: evidence of commercial property insurance

  For a lender or other party with a financial interest in a commercial property. Set questions on causes of loss, valuation, deductibles and coverages such as business income, flood and named storm.

• ACORD 27: evidence of property insurance

  The simpler evidence form: coverages as free-form lines with amounts and deductibles, plus a remarks box. See our ACORD 27 guide.

• ACORD 24: certificate of property insurance

  Property coverage reported to a certificate holder, laid out like the ACORD 25, with up to six insurers and lines for building, personal property, business income, inland marine, crime and equipment breakdown.

• ACORD 25: certificate of liability insurance

  Liability coverage for a certificate holder such as a landlord or general contractor. See our ACORD 25 guide.

How an ACORD 28 moves from agent to lender#

The borrower's agent issues the form when the loan closes and again at each renewal, and the lender or its servicer checks it against the insurance requirements in the loan documents. The Additional Interest box names the lender or other party and marks its interest: mortgagee, lender's loss payable, loss payee or contract of sale.

Lenders need the form as data, not just as a PDF. Fannie Mae, for example, has its multifamily lenders upload insurance documents, the ACORD 28 among them, and also submit the insurance details as structured data in its DUS Insurance Data Set (Form 4087.INS).

The sections of an ACORD 28, and what to extract#

For each part of the 2016/03 edition, the fields worth extracting and what they're used for:

The checks to run against the loan#

Each check compares the form with the insurance requirements in the loan documents. The thresholds below are Fannie Mae's for multifamily loans, as an example; your own loan documents set yours.

• Amount of insuranceAt least what the loan requires. Fannie Mae asks for 100% of estimated insurable value for a single-building property and 90% for a multiple-building property.
• Causes of lossSpecial is checked. Basic and broad cover only the perils they list; special covers any cause that isn't excluded.
• Valuation and coinsuranceReplacement cost is Yes, and coinsurance is No or offset by agreed value.
• Mortgagee clause and loan numberYour exact clause, such as "Fannie Mae, its successors and/or assigns, as their interest may appear" in care of the lender, and the right loan number.
• DatesThe policy is in force at closing, and the expiration date is tracked so renewal evidence arrives before the policy lapses.
• Wind, flood and earthquakeFlood, earth movement, wind and hail, and named storm are covered where the property needs them, with deductibles inside your limits. Fannie Mae caps wind and hail deductibles at 5% of total insurable value, and named storm and earthquake at 7.5%.
• One insurer per formA property insured by several carriers comes with several ACORD 28s, so check the program as a whole.

A typical exception: the building limit covers the loan and the causes of loss are special, but the loan number is missing, so the form goes to a person instead of straight into the servicing system.

How to automate ACORD 28 processing#

1. Collect evidence in one queueRoute the insurance inbox, servicing portal uploads and scans to one place.
2. Classify and splitSeparate the ACORD 28 from the ACORD 25, declarations pages, endorsements and ACORD 101 remarks that often come with it. Docsumo classifies and splits mixed packets on its Business plan.
3. Extract every fieldInclude each yes/no answer with its limit and deductible, and the additional interest. Docsumo reads ACORD forms, scans included, and reports 99% field-level accuracy across 250+ document types.
4. Check against the loanRun the checks above with each loan's requirements. Comparing the form with other documents in the file, such as the policy's declarations page, is cross-document validation, on Docsumo's Enterprise plan.
5. Review exceptionsFields the model is unsure about go to a person, and clicking a field highlights where it sits on the page. Request a corrected form from the agent when a check fails.
6. Send the data onPush it to your loan servicing or insurance tracking system through an API and webhooks, and track each expiration date there.

Vertikal RMS uses Docsumo for COI verification through ACORD capture, and Arbor reached 99% accuracy on insurance compliance documents with it.

• 99%99%field-level accuracy across 250+ document types
• 95%+95%+of documents processed straight through, without manual review

The bottom line#

An ACORD 28 is a lender's one-page view of a commercial property policy, and its value comes from checking it against the loan. Extract every field, including the yes/no questions and the additional interest, run the same checks on every form, and send people only the ones that fail.

Book a demo with a few of your own ACORD 28s, or start a free trial.

Frequently asked questions#