What is an ACORD 126 form? General liability supplement explained

Every commercial general liability (CGL) submission requires two core ACORD forms: the ACORD 125 and the ACORD 126. If you're submitting a GL or BOP application without the 126, most carriers will send it back. Here's what the form covers and how to fill it out correctly.

What is the ACORD 126?

The ACORD 126 — formally called the Commercial General Liability Section — is the supplement to the ACORD 125 that captures the specific details underwriters need to quote and bind commercial general liability coverage. While the ACORD 125 collects general business information, the ACORD 126 digs into the liability-specific details.

You'll submit the ACORD 126 alongside the ACORD 125 for any account that includes general liability, a BOP (Business Owner's Policy), or standalone CGL coverage.

What information does the ACORD 126 collect?

• Premises and operations — details about each business location, square footage, and type of operations conducted
• Revenue and payroll — annual gross sales and total payroll, which are the primary GL rating factors
• Products and completed operations — whether the business manufactures or sells products, and the revenue from those products
• Subcontractors — whether the business uses subcontractors and the annual cost paid to them
• Limits requested — the per-occurrence and aggregate limits the insured needs (most commonly $1M/$2M)
• Additional insureds — landlords, lenders, or other parties that need to be added to the policy

ACORD 126 vs ACORD 125 — what's the difference?

Think of it this way: the ACORD 125 is the master application that every commercial account starts with. The ACORD 126 is the GL-specific supplement that goes with it whenever liability coverage is involved. Other supplements follow the same pattern — the ACORD 130 for workers comp, the ACORD 140 for property, the ACORD 137 for commercial auto.

In practice, almost every commercial submission includes both the 125 and the 126, since most businesses need general liability.

Common mistakes on the ACORD 126

• Using gross profit instead of gross sales for the revenue figure — underwriters want total revenue before expenses
• Forgetting to list subcontractor costs — this is one of the most common GL rating factors for contractors
• Leaving the products section blank for businesses that manufacture or significantly alter products before selling them
• Not specifying the correct coverage trigger (occurrence vs. claims-made) for professional services businesses
• Missing the "nature of business" description — underwriters rely on this to properly classify the risk

How AgencyAssist helps with ACORD 126 submissions

AgencyAssist collects all the information required for both the ACORD 125 and ACORD 126 through a single plain-English intake form. Your client answers questions about their business — revenue, payroll, operations, subcontractors — and the system maps their answers directly to the correct fields on both forms.

The completed ACORD 125 + 126 combination PDF is ready in your dashboard the moment your client finishes the intake form. No phone calls, no back-and-forth, no re-keying data.

Get ACORD 125 + 126 completed automatically

Send your client a smart intake link. Get submission-ready ACORD PDFs in minutes.