Understand how insurance risks actually get placed in the Lloyd’s market, with our clear, jargon-free explanation of slips, endorsements, lead/follow markets, and the subscription system.
What does it really mean to ‘place a risk’ at Lloyd’s of London? Lloyd’s is not a single insurer, reinsurer or underwriter. It’s an insurance marketplace, and risks are often shared across multiple underwriters through a very specific system of slips, lead/follow markets, endorsements and “subscription” signing.
That may initially sound complex and confusing – but taking advantage of the unique opportunities at Lloyd’s can be important if you want access to specialist capacity and flexible structures. So understanding risk placement at Lloyd’s can be a major advantage for you as an insurer, broker, MGA or InsurTech, wherever you are in the world.
Learn more with our quick and simple guide to risk placement at Lloyd’s – and discover why having a specialist Lloyd’s-approved broker like Costero Brokers on your side can make a very real difference.
Challenges facing insurance industry players worldwide
Today’s insurance market is pushing everyone to move faster and be more precise at the same time:
- New risks don’t fit neat templates. Cyber, intangible assets, climate-driven losses, supply chain exposure and parametric triggers all demand custom structures and tight wording.
- Capacity is fragmented. You increasingly have to assemble a programme from multiple markets to reach the limit you need – particularly for specialist classes.
- Regulatory expectations are higher. You can’t ‘sort it out later’ when it comes to where a risk is located, which licences apply, and what needs to be evidenced.
- Clients want speed and certainty. They expect quick decisions and clean documentation, even when the placement is complex. You need access to decision-makers and rapid answers.
The capacity and solutions offered by Lloyd’s can help you address these challenges. But to leverage the advantages, you need to understand how the Lloyd’s placement mechanics actually work.
Lloyd’s of London: not an insurer, a specialist marketplace
Lloyd’s of London is best thought of as a platform or marketplace, where specialist underwriting syndicates (managed by Lloyd’s managing agents) accept risks brought in by Lloyd’s brokers, or bound by coverholders under delegated authority. Much of the capital is deployed on a subscription basis (multiple participants sharing one risk).
When you place a risk at Lloyd’s, you’re typically tapping into a range of benefits:
- specialist syndicate expertise across niche and complex lines.
- flexible structures, including single carrier, layered placements, shared lines, blended Lloyd’s and ‘company market’ (non-Lloyd’s insurers).
- the ability to build a tailored solution by assembling the right set of markets around one contract.
Lloyd’s describes its market as having an unrivalled concentration of specialist underwriting expertise, and a structure that supports innovation and speed.
Understanding the risk placement process at Lloyd’s
If you have an insurance risk to cover that will be hard to place within standard domestic markets, Lloyd’s may enable the ideal solution. At its simplest, the Lloyd’s workflow looks like this:
- You bring the risk to a Lloyd’s-approved broker (such as Costero Brokers). Lloyd’s expects business to come into its market through registered Lloyd’s brokers (or, in some cases, via coverholders operating under delegated authority).
- The Lloyd’s-approved broker prepares the ‘slip’. The slip is the deal summary: the key facts, coverage intent, limits, deductibles, pricing approach, and the main terms everyone is being asked to accept. In the modern London Market, the slip is commonly aligned to the Market Reform Contract (MRC) structure – essentially a standardised way of presenting the contract so all parties can agree terms clearly and consistently.
- A lead underwriter sets the terms. The Lloyd’s-approved broker will usually approach a specialist underwriter to act as the lead (also called the slip leader). The lead is the underwriter responsible for setting the terms on a contract that will be shared by more than one syndicate.
- ‘Follow’ markets subscribe their share. Once the lead terms are set, other syndicates (and sometimes non-Lloyd’s ‘company-market’ insurers) decide whether to ‘follow’ – to join in on those same terms, taking a percentage each. That’s the “subscription market” in action – multiple participants subscribing to one contract.
- The placement is bound and documented. When the required line is filled (i.e. participation reaches 100% of the risk), the contract can be bound and processed for downstream steps like premium collection, data reporting / bordereaux (if relevant), and claims arrangements.
Discover more about how the Lloyd’s market works.
Slips: the documents at the heart of Lloyd’s risk placement
Think of the slip as the ‘executive summary’ and commercial core of the deal. It’s where you make it easy for Lloyd’s market participants to say “yes” (or to propose changes quickly).
When prepared correctly, a good slip will:
- Tell a clear underwriting story (what’s being insured, and why it makes sense).
- Highlight what matters (loss history, controls, exposure drivers).
- Make the ‘ask’ explicit (limit, attachment, period, pricing, key clauses).
- Remove ambiguity (so nobody needs to interpret your intent later).
The slip captures the commercial intent and agreed terms — and those terms then flow into the formal contract documentation.
In practice, slips are also designed to support operational processing – which is why structured formats like the MRC are used.
Lead and follow markets: who decides what?
The lead underwriter is the market’s “point of view” on the deal. They negotiate wording and pricing with a Lloyd’s-approved broker, and once their terms are set, the broker takes those terms to the rest of the market.
The follow markets then decide:
- Do we agree with the lead terms?
- If “yes”, what percentage line will we take?
Importantly, the lead is not just ‘first in line’ – they’re the one doing the heavy lifting on negotiations and technical shape. The lead sets terms; others choose whether to follow.
This approach is a big part of why Lloyd’s can move quickly on specialist risks. You’re usually not re-negotiating the same contract ten times – you’re building consensus around a single set of lead terms.
Subscription signing: how one risk gets shared across multiple syndicates
In a subscription placement, multiple Lloyd’s syndicates each take a percentage of the overall risk. Each participant takes their percentage of the same contract, on the same core terms set by the lead.
A simplified example might be:
- Lead syndicate A takes 35%
- Follow syndicate B takes 25%
- Follow syndicate C takes 20%
- Follow syndicate D takes 20%
Together that’s 100% of the risk, all on the same slip terms. The Lloyd’s market calls each syndicate’s share a ‘line’ – the proportion of the risk they accept.
This sharing of the risk across multiple syndicates brings several advantages, enabling you to:
- Build large limits by combining multiple appetites.
- Reduce single-carrier dependency.
- Mix specialist expertise (for example, pairing a cyber lead with a tech E&O follower, or blending property-cat appetite with parametric capacity).
Endorsements: how you change the contract after inception
Real life happens mid-term – values change, locations shift, acquisitions happen, clauses need tightening, or the insured wants an extension.
At Lloyd’s, the mechanism for doing this properly is an ‘endorsement’ – an addition to the policy wording that changes the contract terms.
In a subscription market, that raises a practical question: Do you need every participating underwriter to re-approve every change? Sometimes the answer may be “yes” – but often, certain changes can be agreed under lead-underwriter authority (within defined limits), so you don’t have to chase every follower for every minor amendment. The advantage of this is control: you want contract changes to be fast and properly evidenced.
Line slips (and other “faster ways” of placing multiple risks)
Not every placement is one-off. If you’re an MGA or a broker placing lots of similar risks, you’ll often look for repeatable structures that reduce friction.
At Lloyd’s, one of those tools is a line slip – a pre-agreed placing facility where multiple underwriters commit capacity in advance for a defined type of risk. A broker can then bind individual risks within agreed parameters, which speeds things up and reduces repeated negotiation. It’s often used for repeatable or high-volume placements where consistency and speed matter.
In simple terms: it’s a way to pre-agree a framework so multiple risks can be bound more efficiently, without re-negotiating everything from scratch every time. For MGAs and InsurTechs building scalable distribution, structures like this can make high-volume placement far more operationally scalable.
How Lloyd’s helps you build better insurance solutions
In summary, for brokers, insurers, MGAs and InsurTechs worldwide, Lloyd’s can be valuable because it gives you:
- Specialist capacity in one marketplace (especially for complex or unusual risks).
- Flexible structures (subscription, layered, blended markets, delegated authority).
- Speed to decision, when the risk story and slip are well-prepared.
- Global reach, where regulatory considerations are handled with discipline.
- Bespoke solutions: Lloyd’s is designed to solve problems that don’t fit standard products.
Why working with a Lloyd’s-approved broker is crucial
Understanding the mechanics of risk placement at Lloyd’s is one thing. Using them well – under time pressure, with real-world constraints – is another.
Working with a Lloyd’s-registered broker like Costero Brokers helps you build your success at Lloyd’s by:
- Translating your risk (or product concept) into a clear, compelling slip.
- Finding the right lead underwriter for your class and structure.
- Building efficient follow-market support to complete the line.
- Managing endorsements and mid-term changes without chaos.
- Advising on the practicalities of compliance and risk location expectations.
- Leveraging wider international markets when Lloyd’s isn’t the only answer.
The end goal is simple: you get the capacity you need, on terms that make sense, with documentation that won’t unravel later.
Your next step for Lloyd’s success
If you’re trying to place a tricky risk, scale a delegated authority proposition, or just want to sense-check whether Lloyd’s is the right home for a particular class or distribution model, Costero can help.
Get in touch with us at Costero Brokers to discuss your requirements and speak with our experts.
