I believe you are stuck with the latter. The logic is that it is the car that is being insured. You write him on the policy. Depending on his age/record you might not have to explicitly name him, although it might be wise to do so. You should be careful about this. First of all, in the final analysis all liability falls back to you both as owner and as policy holder. If your friend has a claim it is to your policy and may affect YOUR rates later - it will be on the policy record. If your policy has 'first accident forgiveness' and your friend has an accident you lose your first accident. And so on. Talk to (and listen to) your agent on this because there can be subtleties and nuances to this. However, first and last, it is you who will be responsible.