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ISTOCK.COM/ANVABERKUT by Jessica Mann of Tinubu Square Americas Long reliant on paper contracts and manual processing, the surety industry is evolving. The pandemic expedited digitization across the industry, and we’re now utilizing technology in new ways to facilitate underwriting, simplify the bond placement process, and automate workflows. While wet signatures and mailed contracts were once commonplace, digitized processes are becoming ...

ISTOCK.COM/VERORO39 Hot Topics in Construction and Surety Risk Management Construction accounting and legal expertise—insights from construction CPAs and attorneys serving on the NASBP Advisory Councils. NASBP is pleased to showcase, for the benefit of readers of Surety Bond Quarterly, the expertise of some of the outstanding construction CPAs and attorneys who serve on the NASBP CPA Advisory Council, www.nasbp.org/cpaadvisorycouncil/home, and the NASBP Attorney ...

ISTOCK.COM/VERORO39 Hot Topics in Construction and Surety Risk Management Construction accounting and legal expertise—insights from construction CPAs and attorneys serving on the NASBP Advisory Councils. NASBP is pleased to showcase, for the benefit of readers of Surety Bond Quarterly, the expertise of some of the outstanding construction CPAs and attorneys who serve on the NASBP CPA Advisory Council, www.nasbp.org/cpaadvisorycouncil/home, and the NASBP Attorney ...

ISTOCK.COM/HTTP://WWW.FOTOGESTOEBER.DE by Jennifer Harris and Nick Hoogstraten of Peckar & Abramson, P.C. When evaluating competitive proposals for federal contracts, contracting officers consider price, technical evaluations, and past performance, among other factors. Up until now, many small businesses faced a significant hurdle when it came to past performance. Often small businesses could not compete with more established large businesses because they ...

ISTOCK.COM/MONSITJ A group of bond producers and surety companies and other stakeholders, through The Institutes RiskStream Collaborative—an industry-led consortium, is working to unlock the potential of blockchain technology across the surety industry. The surety professionals among these companies know that one of the biggest challenges is to digitize the execution of a bond, which is often still a manual undertaking ...

BuISTOCK.COM/ISMAGILOV By Amanda Miceli of Chiesa Shahinian & Giantomasi PC The legal treatment of cryptocurrency is rapidly developing, and, as a result, impacted industries should routinely monitor legislative and agency developments in order to remain in compliance. Specifically, sureties executing money transmitter bonds, which guarantee that a money transmitter conducts business in compliance with the law, including, in some cases, ...

ISTOCK.COM/ALISSARUT By Richard Reizen and Patrick Johnson of Gould & Ratner LLP In the iconic scene from the classic movie Cool Hand Luke, the role played by character actor Strother Martin famously complains to the character played by Paul Newman: “What we’ve got here, is failure to communicate.” Just like the consequences faced by Newman’s character for that failure, the consequences ...

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 ...