ACORD 35

What the ACORD 35 is for

The ACORD 35 is how a cancellation is requested in writing. The insured signs it, the agency sends it to the carrier, and the policy is cancelled from the date stated. It is used when a client sells the business, closes a location, replaces the policy with another carrier, or simply no longer needs the coverage.

It also protects the agency. A cancellation actioned on a phone call and never documented is one of the easier errors-and-omissions claims to lose, because there is nothing in the file showing the client asked for it.

What it collects

Described in our own words, block by block. This is a summary of the information the form gathers, not a reproduction of the form itself.

Policy identification

Carrier, policy number, named insured and the line of business being cancelled.

Cancellation effective date

The date and time from which cancellation is requested, which is not necessarily the date the form is signed.

Reason for cancellation

Why the policy is being cancelled, which carriers use for their own reporting and which can affect how the account is treated later.

Return premium basis

Whether the return is calculated pro rata or short rate, which materially changes what the client gets back.

Release and signature

The insured's signature releasing the carrier and agency, and the producer's countersignature.

Check before it leaves the agency

The defects that cause trouble later are nearly always the same handful. Run these before the form goes out.

• Replacement coverage is in force before the cancellation date, confirmed by a binder or a policy number, not by a promise.
• The effective date is stated explicitly and is not back-dated. Most carriers will not back-date a cancellation, and asking them to is its own problem.
• The insured has signed. A cancellation request without the insured's signature is not a cancellation request.
• The client understands whether the return premium is pro rata or short rate before signing, because the difference is real money.
• Any lender, mortgagee or additional interest with a recorded interest is notified, since they usually have a contractual right to know.
• The signed form and the carrier's confirmation both go in the file. The confirmation is the part that is missing when an E&O claim is filed.

What the ACORD 35 does not do

• It does not cancel the policy by itself. The carrier cancels, and its confirmation is the document that proves it.
• It does not create replacement coverage, and it does not protect the client against a gap between the two policies.

Which edition?

ACORD revises its forms, and the edition date is printed in the bottom-left corner beside the form number. This page deliberately does not name an edition, because a hard-coded one goes stale and a stale edition on a reference page is worse than none. Produce the form from your own management system, which will give you the current version, and read the corner if a carrier or a contract has asked for a specific one.

At renewal

BindCheck reads a bound renewal against the prior policy and reports every form, limit, deductible and endorsement that changed, with each finding cited to the page it came from. That matters for this form because what you put on an ACORD is only correct for as long as the policy behind it is unchanged: a certificate, an evidence form or a schedule of interests prepared from last term's facts is a defect nobody sees until the party relying on it needs it.

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