Agent’s Guide to the SBA Surety Bond Program
What is the SBA Surety Bond Program? The SBA’s Surety Bond Guarantee Program helps small contractors, who would otherwise not be approved by a Surety company, obtain bonding. This program provides an outlet for these contractors to obtain a bonding line for projects up to $6.5M by providing a guarantee to the surety company for up to 90% of the liability on the [...]
Agent Guide to Florida Used Car Dealer Insurance Requirements
What are the insurance requirements for Florida auto dealers? Florida used car dealers must submit an original $25,000 surety bond and proof of garage liability insurance (minimum of $25k combined single-limit liability coverage including bodily injury and property damage and $10k personal injury protection) with their license renewal every year by April 30th. How can an insurance agent obtain the surety bond for [...]
Insurance Agent’s Guide to Georgia Auto Dealer Insurance Requirements
What are the insurance requirements for Georgia auto dealers? Georgia used car dealers must submit an original $35,000 surety bond and proof of garage liability insurance (minimum of 50k/100k/25k or single limit of $125,000) with their license renewal every even year (2018, 2020, 2022,..) on March 31st. The surety bond must be effective for 2 years expiring at the next license renewal (3/31/2020). [...]
Hundreds of Surety Bonds Are Due for Renewal Between Now and the End of 2017. Is Your Customer’s One of Them?
Not all surety bonds expire on fixed dates; the vast majority expire one year after issuance. But with that said, there are a healthy number of licensing requirements for local, statewide, and even federal surety bonds that do expire on the same date every year, regardless of when the bond was issued. And since we recommend beginning the surety bond renewal process well [...]
Make Surety Bond Renewal Painless for Your Customer with These 3 Helpful Tips
As a general rule, surety bond renewal is simpler than the initial application. But there are still some things to know that can help ensure the renewal process is smooth and painless for your customer. Begin the Renewal Process Early Time flies. And so too can the term for a surety bond, which is typically one year. It’s critical that you stay vigilant [...]
How Much Will a Surety Bond Cost my Customer?
How much will a surety bond cost my customer? The cost (usually in the form of a one-time premium payment) for most surety bonds generally falls between 0.5% and 15% of the bond amount. If you do the math, that’s a pretty big spread. For example, a $20,000 bond could conceivably come in at a cost of anywhere between $100 and $3000. Why [...]
What Are Surety Bonds and How Do I Explain Them to My Customers?
As an insurance agent, you spend the majority of your time matching insurance policies to customers. And it’s likely that your customers are already familiar with the framework upon which most insurance policies are built (i.e. an insured and insurer enter into a contract where one or more payments are made in exchange for financial protection or reimbursement against losses). So when the [...]
How to Explain the 4 Key Differences Between a Surety Bond and an Insurance Policy to Your Customers
Surety bonds are misunderstood. Most people assume they work like insurance policies because they involve payments when things don’t go as planned. But surety bonds and insurance policies are actually very different animals. When you find yourself explaining surety bonds to your customers, is it hard for them to grasp that surety bonds are different than insurance? We’ve been told by many of [...]
3 Vital Questions to Ask When Your Customer Needs a Surety Bond
If you’re like most P&C insurance agents, you rightfully focus on insurance lines where you can add value and that provide your customers with proper coverage. Occasionally, these core customers may need a niche insurance product that falls outside your expertise. For most agents, surety bond requests are few and far between. So how do you sound like a pro when discussing a [...]
What is an Obligee?
The term ‘obligee’ is one that pretty much always trips people up the first time they hear it. In terms of surety, the obligee is generally a state government agency. Basically, it works like this: Your client (known as the ‘principal’) is obligated to perform their duties (live up to their side of the bargain) through a contract (known as a ‘surety bond’), [...]
What is a Fidelity Bond?
When it comes to surety bonds, there are literally thousands of different flavors to choose from. Whereas all surety bonds are designed to be a form of fiduciary responsibility to cover financial losses in the event something doesn’t go according to plan... (like if you’re a contractor and you accidentally burn down your client’s house for example,) sometimes those risk factors can be [...]
What is a contract bond?
Also known as a “performance bond,” the contract bond is essentially a guarantee that the contractor will properly execute and finish their project (like building a bridge or house or road for example). A way to think about a contract bond, is that it’s “good faith money”, which is there to protect the person hiring the contractor from the contractor doing bad work, [...]
What is a Business Services Bond?
Generally known as the Employee Dishonesty Bond, a business services bond is a lot like a Fidelity Bond, but has an expanded option which covers your client when their employees are performing services for someone else through your company. (Which is where the Business Services / Janitorial name comes in) From a general concept standpoint, like a Fidelity Bond, this bond covers your [...]
Insurance Agent’s Guide to Surety: What is a Surety Bond?
In the world of insurance, most of the time you’re processing insurance policies for clients in a fairly well-established pattern. Make sure your customer’s contractor license is current, confirm their credit standing, and then find the risk profile for their line of work to make sure that they’re within a reasonable risk profile, etc. However, every so often you’ll get a request for [...]