Surplus Line Filing Procedures, Rules & General Information

API Filing for Surplus Line Policies & Endorsements

The SLAI's API allows your computers to automatically send postings of your Illinois surplus line policies and endorsements to our system for filing, and to receive a response back that includes the SLAI confirmation number and all calculated taxes and stamping fees. Once your system captures this response, it can then print the appropriate information on the policy or generate an SLAI confirmation page that can be attached to the policy or endorsement before delivery to the insured as required by law.

The API is not for users, but rather solely for programmers who are familiar with the requirements and web standards for Representational State Transfer Application Program Interfaces (RESTful APIs), HTTP protocol and the JSON data format.

Step 1: Access the Sandbox System / Set Up Account(s)

When your membership was established, the licensee designated an EFS Administrator in the membership forms. If you don't know who your EFS Administrator is, . That EFS Administrator can set up user accounts and grant API key-generation permission for any programmers that will be working on developing your API capabilities by following the instructions on our User Administration help page, however, they will need to set the accounts up on the sandbox system instead of the production system (see below for a link to the sandbox system). When setting up logins for the programmers, the EFS Administrator should remember to grant them permission to generate an API key, as well as data entry, bulk entry and reporting. For security purposes, each user should always have their own login.

Step 2: Access Swagger Data & Specifications

Once your programmer has an account on the sandbox system, they can access the swagger data page (login is required). This is the link to the swagger data page on the sandbox system. There is an identical page on the production system, but let's stay in the sandbox for now.

There are also additional important details regarding general specifications for the data fields (available without a login) that can be found in an excel spreadsheet located here.

Step 3: Generate API Key (Token)

Once a programmer has access to the test/sandbox system, they should generate an API key for use in their testing. The key is generated in the "GENERATE API TOKEN" panel of the Edit Profile section (accessed by clicking on your name in the upper-right corner of the screen). The API key is used for authentication of POSTs as described on the swagger data page. An API key is tied to the member number and login from which is generated. So if you are user jdoe@abc.com with SLAI member number 9876, any POSTs made using the API key you generate will post to member number 9876 and will show as posted by jdoe@abc.com.

Step 4: Code & Test

Now that you have access to the test system and have reviewed the API/swagger information, you can begin working on your end, creating the code that will interface with the SLAI sandbox API, sending posts and receiving response data. You should test to see that your code creates only valid posts. During this process, you are welcome to reach out to with any questions and he will happily answer them or refer you to other staff that can assist you.

Step 5: Go Live on the Production System

Never do any testing on the production system. Once you are ready to go live with your API, we've found that a good practice is to create an alias email account for the API filings. So if your name is Betty Smith and your email is betty@abcinsurance.com, you might create an alias email account called betty_api@abcinsurance.com. Have your EFS Administrator set up a login for that email on the production system (with appropriate permissions) and generate the production API key from that account. That way, all API filings will be identified with this unique email account and will be distinguishable from filings made by other users using other methods.