What is a facultative slip in reinsurance?

A facultative slip is the placing instrument for one risk. It states who, what, where, when, how much, on what conditions. Markets write lines on it. The slip is not the certificate. The slip is how you get to a certificate. Unsigned slips are drafts. A pack that treats a draft as bound has skipped the only moment facultative is supposed to be optional.

In London the slip may be an MRC. Electronic placing does not change the field contract. A platform submission is still a document. The limit still needs a span.

What the slip must carry

Facultative reinsurance is optional on both sides. The long assembly guide is how to build a submission pack. The slip is the page the market writes. Named insured, period, interest, territory, limits, deductibles, share offered, conditions. If TIV is "as SOV," the SOV must be in the pack.

Fictional walkthrough: ACME Construction Ltd, acme.example. Slip.pdf page 1 names the insured and the period 1 January 2026 to 31 December 2026. Slip.pdf page 2 states USD 10,000,000 any one occurrence and TIV USD 42,000,000. A leader writes 25 percent of USD 10,000,000 on those terms. Two following markets write 15 percent and 10 percent. Written lines total 50 percent. That is not a complete placement unless 50 percent was the order. Mental arithmetic that turns 25 percent into 12.5 percent in the admin system is how the certificate later disagrees with the slip.

The pack inspector uses this same ACME file. TIV on the slip is USD 42,000,000. The SOV totals USD 47,100,000 because a warehouse was added after the slip was typed. Hours clause: not in the pack. Those are conflicts and gaps on the placing document, not decoration. Markets who write the slip are writing the slip TIV and the slip limit unless they initial a different schedule. Sending two versions of the zip, one with the warehouse and one without, is two slips pretending to be one.

Slip versus certificate versus email

Lines written on a slip, in markets that still write lines, are commitments to those terms. If a deductible moves in an email and the slip is not updated, you have a conflict between documents. Store both. Do not let a model pick the email because it is newer.

The certificate must match the written slip: insured legal name, period, limit, share, conditions. ACME Ltd versus ACME Construction Ltd is a name conflict. Period shifted by a day is a period conflict. Share 10 percent on the slip and 12.5 percent on the certificate is a share conflict. The claims desk will be handed the certificate. Extraction on the outbound certificate is the same job as extraction on the inbound slip.

A covering email that restates the limit as USD 12,000,000 when page 2 says USD 10,000,000 is not a revised slip. It is a chase item: amend the slip or retract the email.

Syndication is one pack

Several lines on one slip is one placement. If following markets receive a different SOV than the leader, you have two placements. Keep the pack version on the slip reference. When a following market writes 5 percent of USD 10,000,000 any one occurrence, that share is a field that must match the certificate later.

Do not call the slip a bordereau. Do not call it a treaty wording. Do not bind ACME because the occupancy string matched guidance. The slip is the ask. Guidance is the filter. The certificate is the evidence. Mixing those three objects is how optional business becomes an argument.