Current News

IT HAS OFTEN been said that a contractor’s bonding capacity is its lifeblood. On more than one occasion, I have been told by contractors that their bond producer is their most important business partner. In addition to helping contractors get the bonds they need, bond producers must also be prepared to serve as an advisor to the contractor/bond principal when something ...

WHAT WAS THE old Chinese curse? “May you be born in interesting times”? We are most certainly seeing those interesting times, and few sectors have been as affected as construction—housing, commercial activity, and public sector building. These are important parts of any nation’s economy, but in the U.S. the impact is especially profound. Home ownership has been promoted more in the ...

By JACK A. CALLAHAN ON DECEMBER 22, 2017, the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act was signed into law. The most sweeping tax change since 1986, the Act is intended to encourage economic growth and bring back jobs and profits from overseas by reducing corporate tax rates and providing other incentives. It is too soon to analyze the entire Act and ...

NASBP ANNUALLY SURVEYS its affiliate membership of surety companies to gain an understanding of the state of the surety industry over the prior calendar year, together with a snapshot of the affiliates’ expectations of and experiences in the first quarter of the year in which the survey is conducted. Survey information is gathered through a written survey instrument and is ...

ROBERT SHAW, PRESIDENT and founding partner of Skillings Shaw & Associates in Lewiston, Maine, has a passion for teaching others about the surety bond business; he’s been an instructor at the NASBP William J. Angell Surety School for almost 30 years. Shaw himself has learned a lot about the industry since he interviewed for a job with Maine Bonding and ...

By CHRISTOPHER KUEHL WHAT WAS THE old Chinese curse? “May you be born in interesting times”? We are most certainly seeing those interesting times, and few sectors have been as affected as construction—housing, commercial activity, and public sector building. These are important parts of any nation’s economy, but in the U.S. the impact is especially profound. Home ownership has been ...

BY LAUREN E. RANKINS, ERICA DEL AGUILA, AND ANIUSKA ROVAINA Introduction The starting point of this article is a maxim that is the very essence of suretyship: the surety is not liable unless its principal is liable on the underlying obligation. As such, a surety is entitled it assert its principal’s defenses against a claim for labor or material furnished ...

BY MATTHEW D. CASH THE FINANCIAL ACCOUNTING Standards Board’s issuance of the new revenue recognition standard, Revenue from Contracts with Customers, will fundamentally change accounting and disclosures for construction contractors. The standard is effective for public companies in calendar year 2018 and for private companies in calendar year 2019. This accounting standards update eliminates most of the existing industry-specific guidance, ...

BY FRANK M. RAPOPORT AND JERRY P. BRODSKY PUBLIC-PRIVATE PARTNERSHIP (P3) projects have finally emerged in the U.S. infrastructure market. Contractors and their sureties must be poised and committed to profile their willingness and capabilities to embrace this new model of project delivery. Those minimizing this inevitable shift will be left out of upcoming deal flow from mayors, governors, and ...

IN A NASBP Surety Bond Quarterly exclusive interview, Campbell Pryde, President and CEO of XBRL US, talked about how he envisions the standardization process will impact producers, their clients, and sureties. Historically, surety bond producers, contractors, and sureties have used their own systems for recording financial data. Moving data to another party or to a different form required manual reentry. ...