Risk transfer is the strategy behind every insurance requirement a GC imposes. By combining indemnification clauses, additional insured endorsements, and primary and noncontributory wording, the GC moves the cost of a sub's mistakes onto the sub's insurance rather than its own.
Effective risk transfer depends on the details lining up, contract language, the right endorsements, and adequate limits. A gap in any one of them can leave the GC holding a loss it intended to transfer.