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ISTOCK.COM/MASTERSERGEANT Surety professionals need an amazingly diverse skillset. First, they need financial and accounting skills; experts can teach those number skills. Less dependent on rote learning are “people skills”—intangibles that successful professionals rely on daily in serving clients and stakeholders. In such a relationship-based industry, those people skills are essential. Producers and their colleagues must forge connections and build trust ...

ISTOCK.COM/IVELINRADKOV By Jacqueline Greenberg Vogt Public construction projects almost always require surety bonds. As a type of insurance, bonds protect the government if the wheels come off a project, or the contractor absconds with the funds. Indeed, bonding has been mandatory on federal public works projects since 1894, with the passage of the Heard Act, which was superseded in 1935 ...

ISTOCK.COM/NADIA_BORMOTOVA By Matthew Feinberg Members of the government contracting community are familiar with the contracting opportunities offered specifically to small and disadvantaged businesses through the U.S. Small Business Administration’s (SBA) 8(a) Business Development, Mentor-Protégé, and various set-aside programs (such as those available for service-disabled veteran-owned small businesses (SDVOSB) or women-owned small businesses). The availability of small business and other set-aside ...

ISTOCK.COM/PATPITCHAYA By Elliot Scharfenberg It borders on the cliché to begin an article by musing that suretyship is among the most ancient contracts known to law and that undertaking a suretyship contract has been fraught with risk ever since its inception. While this is undeniably true, I assume that everyone reading this article is no stranger to these well-trodden platitudes. ...

ISTOCK.COM/RELIF By Robert S. Posner of Grassi As the construction industry emerges from the COVID-19 pandemic, new realities continue to impact contractors’ plans and strategies. Unlike past years, however, contractors in 2022 have the advantage of the many lessons the industry has learned over 2020 and 2021 as it battled the impact of pandemic losses and overcame unique challenges. To ...

ISTOCK.COM/VECTORINSPIRATION By Kevin Hamernik of BKD Working with a company struggling or bordering on the edge of insolvency is difficult enough, but any seasoned turnaround professional who has worked with construction companies knows this industry presents additional, unique challenges. Why? Although there are many reasons, this article will focus on examining five major elements. 1. Lien Impacts In general, contractors, ...

ISTOCK.COM/GUSTAVOFRAZAO By Richard P. Higgins of McCarthy & Company Building a solid foundation for good relationships with sureties and bankers is important for every contractor, impacting growth and profitability. Sureties and bankers rely on your credit history, payment record, credit score, and performance when making a credit decision. Sureties also factor the three C’s into their decision to issue a ...

ISTOCK.COM/ZOLNIEREK By Adam M. Tuckman of Watt Tieder Hoffar Fitzgerald LLP Beginning more than one century ago, owners and contractors generally have adopted the convention of including liquidated damages in their contracts to fix potential liability for delay (and other losses) at the inception of the project. The proliferation of liquidated damages clauses in modern contracts can be attributed to ...

Learning about the ins and outs of qualifying for surety bonds as a construction contractor may sound like a dry course of study, but contractors may find those expectations defied when they tune into the new Contractor Bonding Education and Mentoring Program for construction firms. It’s a sleek, engaging, and streamlined production of The Surety & Fidelity Association of America ...

When visionary business leaders take action, they always have their eye on the future. The problem is that it takes broad industry knowledge and experience to gain the perspective for making the best decisions. If the marketplace always stayed the same, that wouldn’t be the huge deal it is today. But with change the only real constant in today’s world, ...