A contractor that maintains a reasonably balanced balance sheet may encounter difficulty placing surety bonds despite its healthy financial status if the first surety underwriter looks at the account in an adverse manner. The appetite of carriers may differ across trades, project type, geographical location and account track record. This is one of the reasons why independent surety brokers continue to be important players in an environment where the process of surety bonding is highly specialized.
Independent brokers are not confined to a certain surety company. They must know which sureties will be able to understand the contractor's risk profile and which carriers will turn down the account even without fully assessing it. This becomes particularly important when a contractor is looking to grow bigger or recover after a certain period of operations that require further explanation.
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Matching between the carrier and the account can have impact on both approval and terms. While some sureties pay special attention to liquidity and backlog, others may consider management experience or performance a decisive factor. And it is important for the broker to know this prior to submitting the account, since a mis-matching submission will only cause time-wasting and weaken the contractor's position.
Such a strategy involves much more than just providing several sureties with required documentation. Underwriters require a thorough understanding of a contractor's financial situation, project controls, owner structure and previous job record. Only a surety expert will be able to prepare the submission in such a manner that it will anticipate all the underwriting's questions.
For carriers, independent brokers can become a filter of sorts. A properly prepared submission will prevent underwriters from facing an incomplete and confusing file. It will allow them to assess the contractor's ability to fulfill its commitments more accurately. Although it will not replace the underwriting judgement, it will streamline the process.
However, contractors may not realize it. What they see is either an approval, denial of the application or a need for further information. Nevertheless, there is a placement strategy behind it which is based on appetite of carriers and broker judgement.
From the perspective of a buyer, this implies that selecting an appropriate broker should include questions of market access and expertise in surety business. Just being a general insurance broker may not be sufficient when the contractor requires surety capacity for public work or bigger projects.