Bonding Success Stories Expanded Surety & Profitability Market Availability Pays Off Creative Surety Solution Delivers Surety Capacity Negotiation

Creative Surety Solution Delivers In late 2008, a specialty trade contractor came to Business Insurance Associates, Inc. to get performance and payment bonds for a contract he had already signed. The contractor had never previously been required to post contract surety bonds, and had little familiarity with the process involved in setting up a surety program. The down swing in the economy, tighter credit standards, and construction spending, had certainly not made it any easier for contractors to establish a surety program in that environment. Business Insurance Associates, Inc. conducted all comprehensive internal review, and uncovered several deficiencies that needed immediate attention. The surety account executive brought in an outside accountant to audit the internal accounting systems and correct several identified problems within the financial statements. Once corrected, the financial condition of the business, which never placed emphasis on the liquidity reflected on the balance sheet, made a tough sell to bring the surety on board with a $ 520,000 request with no prior surety relationship. In putting together the submission, we placed an emphasis on letters of reference/recommendation, to bring credibility and an established reputation to a surety underwriter that had no previous dealings with this principal. Approximately fourteen letters were included in the submission, all of them referencing good credit practices, timely payment practices, good operational creditentials, and vouchers for the character of the owner. In securing this surety request, we utilized an outside indemnitor and secured the bonds for the contractor, on a project where the profits ran $ 80,000.