Work starts before coverage does
The contractor takes their first assignment while the COI is still "on its way." If something happens in that window, the exposure is yours.
Contractor Onboarding Compliance
No 1099 reaches their first job uninsured.
Most contractor onboarding collects insurance after the work starts — a COI someone remembers to chase, or doesn't. 1099Policy makes coverage and proof a step in onboarding itself: you set the requirement, verify what contractors bring, enroll the ones who can't, and gate the first assignment on a compliant status.
Set requirementsVerify or enrollGate the first jobKeep the proof
The problem
Where contractor onboarding compliance leaks.
Onboarding a 1099 isn't done when the paperwork is signed — it's done when they're insured, documented, and cleared to work. Three gaps open up between those two moments.
"Send a COI" only works sometimes
Established contractors send a certificate. One-person crews often have nothing to send — and onboarding stalls on a document that may never arrive.
Proof scatters across systems
Certificates land in inboxes and drives. When a client or insurer asks who was covered on day one, there's no single record to point to.
What makes this different
Verify the ones who can. Enroll the ones who can't.
A checklist or a COI-request email only handles contractors who already carry insurance. 1099Policy handles both halves of your roster in one onboarding step: contractors who bring a certificate are verified through COI Review; contractors who have nothing enroll in coverage in their own name through Fractional Insurance, in under a minute.
Either path ends the same way — a compliant status and a certificate on file — so onboarding never dead-ends on a contractor who can't produce a COI.
01 // Incoming Certificate Review
Certificate parsed & validated
[ PARSED // OCR ]Checked against your requirements
[ RULESET // MATCH ]Cleared without enrolling
[ STATUS // CLEARED ]Verified or enrolled, automatically.
1099Policy reads every contractor and routes them to the right path — no manual triage.
Enforcement
Gate the first assignment on compliant status.
Compliance is only real if it's enforced. Coverage status is exposed through the API, and a webhook fires the moment a contractor is cleared — so your onboarding flow can hold the first assignment until a policy reads active. No one starts work uninsured because they slipped past a manual step.
Read the API reference →A note on classification
In-name coverage reads as an independent business.
A contractor who carries insurance in their own name and entity looks like what they are — an independent business, not an employee. It's one supporting signal in a worker-classification analysis under tests like the ABC test, alongside the contract, the degree of control, and the economics of the relationship.
We surface the signal and keep the documentation — the classification call itself is one for you and your counsel to make. Either way, "separately insured, with proof on file from day one" is a much stronger position than "we never collected anything."
Policy matches registered entity name
SECURE_LEDGER // ATTACHED_ID: 1099_AOR_2026
In practice
Onboarding compliance for a staffing marketplace.
The challenge. A field-services marketplace onboarded contractors fast to fill shifts — but insurance was a back-office email chase. Some contractors worked their first shift before any COI existed, and a quarter of applicants had no coverage to send at all, stalling their activation.
The solution. Enrollment moved into the signup flow. Contractors with coverage upload a certificate that's verified automatically; contractors without it enroll in their own name in under a minute. The marketplace gates the first shift on a compliant status returned by the API.
The result. Activation got faster, not slower — no one waits on a back-office chase — and zero contractors reach a shift uninsured.
M. Alvarez — Premium Shift Request[ SHIFT // ALLOWED ]
S. Park — No COI on file[ GATE // BLOCKED ]
Trusted by
The teams that staff, dispatch, and pay contractors.
Wieden+Kennedy
BBDO
DDB
Golin Ketchum
Octagon
CreatorIQ
FAQ
Onboarding compliance questions.
Often — and the real exposure is misclassification, not the 1099 label itself. In ABC-test states like California, New Jersey, and Massachusetts, and under New York's analysis, a creator can be reclassified as an employee based on the degree of control and how the work is set up. If that happens, or if an uninsured creator is injured on an engagement, the brand can end up the de facto employer on the workers'-comp claim. WC carried in the creator's own name keeps an injury with their policy and is one supporting signal of genuine independence — not a substitute for the full classification test, but it closes the gap that would otherwise land on the brand.
Not when the policy is in the contractor's name. 1099Policy issues coverage to the creator as the named insured - the brand or agency is added as a blanket additional insured. That is structurally different from an EOR arrangement.
The creator's policy responds first. WC covers medical, lost-wage indemnity, and rehab. The brand's separate GL and additional-insured status protect against secondary liability.
Yes. Per-gig, per-day, and annual options are available. A creator who opts in once can be covered for every engagement that flows through 1099Policy using the same underlying policy structure.
It regulates New York modeling agencies and management companies — requiring registration, fiduciary duties to the talent they represent, written contracts, consent for AI and digital-replica use, and prompt payment. It took effect in 2025. It's an agency-conduct law, not a workers'-comp or insurance mandate, so it doesn't itself require coverage for 1099 talent — though it reflects the broader push toward documented, in-name protections for creative workers.
The creator - always. Their name is on the COI, the carrier holds the policy in their entity, and claims pay out to them. The brand or agency is added as additional insured where required.
Make insurance a step in onboarding, not a chase after it.
See how requirements, verification, on-the-spot enrollment, and an API gate keep every 1099 compliant before the first assignment.