Surety Bond Quarterly Professionals in Surety Bonding
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 ...
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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 ...
Read More »Are You Ready for a Hard Market?
Planning When You Don’t Need It Will Save You When You Do By: Kirk Rathjen, Regional Vice President, Contract Underwriting, Merchants Bonding Company Construction and surety have grown strongly over the past ten years with plenty of capacity, keeping the market soft, but it is always cyclical, so it’s just a matter of time before we start leaning toward a ...
Read More »My surety wants to use funds control to provide my bonds… why?
The added security on a construction project is a win-win for all parties involved, says expert Construction projects can be risk-filled propositions as contractors work to meet strict deadlines while trying to avoid poor workmanship and workplace injuries. However, a major risk facing these projects isn’t any of the above. According to National Escrow, a division of Allstar Financial Group; ...
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