SPONSORED CONTENT FROM Old Republic Surety Posted by Erik Mueller Most construction companies in the U.S. are owned by an individual or the members of a family. Yet, according to the Family Business Alliance, only 30% of family-owned businesses survive into the second generation, and just 12% remain viable into the third generation. That means when owners are ready to retire, ...
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The basics of underwriting energy bonds
SPONSORED CONTENT FROM Liberty Mutual Surety Energy bonds are required for many different projects. Maybe your customer needs to plug a well or perhaps they need restore land to its previous state after installing solar panels. Whatever the obligation, there’s a lot that goes into underwriting energy bonds and you need to make sure you are working with an underwriter ...
Read More »Is it M for Thousand and MM for Million, or K for thousand and M for Million? I’m asking for a friend.
SPONSORED CONTENT FROM Old Republic Surety Posted by Darrel Lamb, CPCU, AFSB Western Civilization has had two powerful influences – the traditions of the Greeks and the Romans, and there is often conflict. The Greeks would refer to the god of the sea as Poseidon, where the Romans would call him Neptune. For the Romans, the god of wine would ...
Read More »How Drones Impact Surety Underwriting
SPONSORED CONTENT FROM Liberty Mutual Surety The benefits of using drones or unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) in the construction industry are well documented and their use is becoming more prevalent. But how can drones help contractors get bonded? Simply put, drones can positively influence one or more of the three C’s of surety underwriting (Character, Capacity, and Capital), which underwriters ...
Read More »Surety Bond or Letter of Credit: What’s the Difference?
SPONSORED CONTENT FROM OLD REPUBLIC SURETY Posted by Scot Albrinck, AFSB Surety bonds and letters of credit (LOCs) both provide risk management for construction or development projects. To know which is appropriate to use, it helps to understand their differences. A surety bond is a three-party agreement among: The principal, who is the primary party who’ll perform the work (i.e., the obligation).The ...
Read More »Lessons from the Field: Why Business Continuity Planning Is Essential
SPONSORED CONTENT FROM OLD REPUBLIC SURETY Posted by Wayne Messick, AFSB Like it or not, ownership and management changes are a certainty in construction. According to FMI, every construction company that isn’t publicly traded will go through an ownership transition — usually every 25 to 30 years. With baby-boomer retirements on the rise, those changes are occurring with greater frequency. A ...
Read More »Expect the Unexpected: The Importance of a Solid Continuity Plan
SPONSORED CONTENT FROM OLD REPUBLIC SURETY By Scot Albrinck, AFSB Growing up in a family that owned an electrical contracting business, I was always surrounded by a strong work ethic and dedication to the business. While my role was focused on pulling wire, bolting on stadium light pegs in the middle of winter, and sweeping floors, the heartbeat of the ...
Read More »Surety Agents and Sureties Can Help Small Contractors Manage Risk
Working with a surety agent and a surety from the earliest stages of planning a new project can mitigate risk.
Read More »The Over and Under of Contractor Billings
Posted by Mike Sanders, AFSB Large overbillings or underbillings can be an indication of problems that could jeopardize the stability of a contractor’s bond program. Generally Accepted Accounting Principals (GAAP) state that to be accurate, the best way for a contractor to report earnings is most often on the Percentage of Completion (POC) method of accounting. This method ties together ...
Read More »How Work in Progress Reports Benefit Contractors, Accountants, and Everyone Else
Posted by Rich Sghiatti Cost overruns are a common occurrence in the construction industry. It’s far too easy at the mid-point of any project to misjudge billing against the actual status of the project. That’s where the Work in Progress (WIP) report comes in. The work in progress (WIP) report or WIP schedule is one of the most important reporting mechanisms in the ...
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