The ACORD 35 Cancellation Form

What the form does

One form, two functions, and they are not always used together:

• Cancellation request — the insured asks the carrier to terminate coverage as of a stated date, most often because the risk was sold, the account is being rewritten elsewhere, or the insured no longer wants the coverage.
• Policy release — the insured confirms that the carrier's liability ends on that date and, where the physical policy cannot be returned, that the document is lost, destroyed or being kept. This is the half that protects the carrier from a later claim on a policy nobody can produce.

What goes on it

The blocks a carrier's service desk checks first:

• Agency / producer — your agency name, address, contact and code. The carrier replies here.
• Carrier / company — the underwriting company, not the wholesaler or MGA, unless the MGA is the one that issued.
• Named insured — has to match the declarations page exactly, entity suffix included.
• Policy number and policy type — the current term. A number from an expired term is a routine cause of rejection.
• Effective date of cancellation — the date liability ends and the date the premium calculation runs from.
• Reason for cancellation — typically rewritten, sold, insured's request, or non-payment.
• Signatures — all named insureds. Witness requirements vary by carrier and state.

Flat, pro-rata and short-rate

The cancellation type determines the return premium, and it is worth setting the insured's expectation before the form goes in:

Type	Return premium	When it applies
Flat	Full premium returned	The policy never took effect — cancelled as of inception
Pro rata	All unearned premium returned	Usually when the carrier initiates the cancellation
Short rate	Unearned premium less a penalty	Usually when the insured cancels mid-term

An insured who expects a pro-rata refund and receives a short-rate one will call you about it, so it is worth saying which applies at the time they sign.

Mistakes that get the form kicked back

• One signature on a multi-insured policy — every named insured has to sign.
• Named insured spelled differently from the declarations — "Smith Construction LLC" against "Smith Construction, L.L.C." is enough.
• Back-dated effective date — most carriers will not cancel retroactively, and the ones that do will want a statement of no loss for the intervening period.
• A cancellation date that leaves a gap — on a rewrite, match the cancellation date to the new policy's inception. An uninsured day is a real exposure, not a paperwork detail.
• No reason given — the reason drives the carrier's own reporting and, on some books, whether the account can be rewritten later.

Where to get a fillable ACORD 35

ACORD forms are copyrighted and cannot legitimately be redistributed, so we do not host a copy and neither should the free-PDF sites that rank for this. Use one of:

• ACORD.org — requires an ACORD account, free for member agencies
• Your agency management system — Applied, Vertafore and HawkSoft all ship the ACORD forms library and will pre-fill it from the account record
• The carrier's agent portal — many carriers post the blank form alongside their cancellation instructions

Related ACORD forms

Form	Title	Use
ACORD 35	Cancellation Request / Policy Release	Cancel a policy, release the carrier
ACORD 36	Agent/Broker of Record Change	Move servicing rights without cancelling
ACORD 611	Claims History / Loss Run Request	Request claims history from a carrier

The 36 is the one to reach for when the client is changing agents but keeping the policy — cancelling and rewriting a policy that only needed a broker of record change costs the insured earned premium for nothing.