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Surety Bonds · IL, IN, OH, TN & WI

Surety bonds, written without the runaround.

A city clerk, a licensing board, a general contractor or a judge told you to post a bond, and the deadline is probably this week. We write license and permit, contract, court, fiduciary, notary and ERISA bonds across all five states we're licensed in. Most small bonds are issued the same day.

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5
states
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Sameday
On most standard
license bonds
The Short Version

A surety bond is not insurance for you. That one fact explains everything else.

Almost every frustrating thing about buying a bond makes sense once you understand that a surety bond protects somebody else, and that you are on the hook to pay the surety back. It is a credit product wearing an insurance company's clothes.

Three parties, not two

Every surety bond involves three parties. The principal is you, the business or individual who has to post the bond. The obligee is whoever is requiring it, a state licensing board, a city, a court, a project owner. The surety is the carrier that issues the bond and guarantees to the obligee that you will do what you said you would.

On a normal insurance policy you pay a premium and the carrier absorbs your losses. A surety bond inverts that. The surety expects zero losses, and if it does pay a claim, it comes back to you for every dollar. That is the indemnity agreement you sign, and it is not boilerplate.

What this means in practice

If a claim is paid on your bond, you reimburse the surety in full, including its legal costs. A bond is a guarantee of your conduct, not a shield against the consequences of it. Underwriters price accordingly, which is why credit matters more here than on any other product we write.

Why the underwriter asks about your credit

Because the surety is extending you credit, not pooling your risk. For small license and permit bonds the review is usually a soft credit pull and a short application. For contract bonds on real construction work, the underwriter wants financial statements, work in progress schedules, bank references and a look at your working capital.

Good credit on a routine license bond usually lands in the neighborhood of one to three percent of the bond amount per year. Weaker credit costs more, sometimes considerably more, and some markets will still write it. Nobody is denied outright as often as people assume.

"Half the calls we get on bonds start with someone apologizing for their credit. Bring it anyway. There is almost always a market."

The bond amount is not the premium

This trips up nearly everyone. If a village requires a $20,000 contractor bond, you are not paying $20,000. You are paying a premium for the guarantee, often a few hundred dollars a year. The $20,000 is the maximum the surety would pay out to the obligee if you failed to perform, and the ceiling on what you would owe the surety back.

Bring the paperwork and this gets fast

The single biggest cause of delay is a missing bond form. Obligees usually require their own exact wording, and a generic form gets rejected. If you were handed a notice, a packet or a link, send it over. With the right form in hand, most standard license bonds are issued the same day.

Bond Types

The bonds business owners
in our five states actually need.

Surety is a wide category and most people only ever need one bond from it. Here is the plain-English version of what each type does and who typically gets asked for it.

📄
License & Permit Bonds
Required before a state, county or city will issue or renew your license. Contractors, auto dealers, collection agencies, freight brokers, tobacco and liquor sellers and dozens of other trades. The amount is set by the entity requiring it, not by you.
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Contractor License Bonds
Many municipalities require a bond before they will let you pull a permit. Amounts commonly run from a few thousand to $25,000 depending on the village and the trade. If you work across several towns, you may need several.
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Bid Bonds
Submitted with your proposal on public work. Guarantees that if you win, you will actually sign the contract and furnish the performance and payment bonds. Usually issued at no additional premium when a surety has already approved your bonding line.
✅
Performance Bonds
Guarantees you will complete the job to the contract terms. If you default, the surety arranges completion and bills you. Typically written at 100 percent of the contract value on public work.
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Payment Bonds
Guarantees your subs and suppliers get paid. Because federal and state property generally cannot be liened, payment bonds are the mechanism that protects the people below you on a public job.
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Court & Judicial Bonds
Appeal bonds, injunction bonds, replevin bonds and attachment bonds. Ordered by a judge, usually on short notice, and the required wording comes from the court.
🏛
Probate & Fiduciary Bonds
Required of executors, administrators, guardians, conservators and trustees. The court sets the amount based on the value of the estate or the assets under your control.
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Notary Bonds
Required in most states before a notary commission is issued. Amounts vary by state and the term usually matches the length of your commission. Inexpensive and quick.
💳
ERISA Fidelity Bonds
Federally required under ERISA Section 412 for anyone handling retirement plan funds. Coverage must be at least 10 percent of plan funds handled, with a $1,000 minimum and a $500,000 maximum, or $1,000,000 for plans holding employer securities.
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Fidelity & Employee Dishonesty
Not always required by anyone, but it covers theft by your own employees, which a standard business policy usually excludes or sublimits badly. Common for businesses that handle client money or inventory.
What Drives the Price

Why two contractors get
two very different quotes.

Surety pricing is underwriting, not a rate table. These are the factors that actually move the number, and the ones you can do something about before you apply.

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Personal Credit
The single largest factor on small and mid-size bonds. Strong credit typically lands you at the low end of the rate range. Weaker credit does not disqualify you, it just moves you to a different market.
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Years in Business
An established operating history lowers the perceived risk. Brand new businesses can absolutely get bonded, they just see rates at the higher end until there is a track record.
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Financial Statements
For contract bonds, working capital and net worth largely determine your bonding capacity, meaning the largest single job and the total backlog a surety will support.
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Trade & Job Type
A roofing contractor and an electrical contractor are underwritten differently. On contract bonds, the complexity and duration of the specific job matter too.
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Bond Amount
Premium is generally a percentage of the bond penalty, so a larger required bond costs more. The obligee sets the amount, which means this one is out of your hands.
📅
Multi-Year Terms
Many license and notary bonds can be written for two or three years at a discount versus paying annually. Worth asking about if the bond is a recurring requirement.
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Business Structure
Corporations and LLCs with clean filings and a real balance sheet underwrite more smoothly than sole proprietors operating informally.
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A Complete Application
The fastest and cheapest path is a complete submission with the correct obligee bond form attached. Incomplete applications get referred, and referrals cost days.
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Bundling the Rest
When your commercial package, work comp and auto sit with us alongside the bond, the whole relationship gets easier to service and the account gets attention it would not get spread across four agents.
Licensed in Five States

One agent for bonds in Illinois,
Indiana, Ohio, Tennessee and Wisconsin.

Bonding requirements are set locally, and they do not match across state lines. A contractor licensed in Lake County who picks up work in Kenosha or Indianapolis is looking at a different obligee, a different bond form and often a different amount. Being licensed in all five states means one agent handles all of it instead of you starting over with a new agency every time you cross a border.

Municipal requirements vary inside a single state too. Contractors working across Lake County routinely need separate bonds for separate villages, each on that village's own form. We keep track of which ones you carry and when they renew.

On public work, the federal Miller Act requires performance and payment bonds on federal construction contracts above $150,000 under the Federal Acquisition Regulation, and each state has its own Little Miller Act with different thresholds and deadlines for state and municipal projects. If you are bidding public work in more than one state, those differences are worth a conversation before you bid, not after.

3parties
Principal, obligee and surety, the structure behind every bond
1-3%
Typical annual premium range on standard license bonds for good credit
$150K
Federal contract threshold above which the Miller Act requires performance and payment bonds
5states
Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, Tennessee and Wisconsin
Licensed in Five States

Bonds written across
five states.

Obligees, bond forms and required amounts are set locally, and they do not match across state lines. Being licensed in all five means one agent handles the whole set instead of you starting over with a new agency every time you cross a border.

IL
Illinois
Home state. Office on Barron Blvd in Grayslake
IN
Indiana
Licensed. License, permit and contract bonds
OH
Ohio
Licensed. License, permit and contract bonds
TN
Tennessee
Licensed. License, permit and contract bonds
WI
Wisconsin
Licensed. Just over the Lake County line and statewide

Each state has its own Little Miller Act with its own threshold, and municipal bond requirements vary inside a single state too. Send us the obligee's bond form or the notice you were handed, whichever state it came from, and we will quote from it. Call (847) 223-4747.

Situational & Specialty

Contractors, executors, notaries and plan trustees.

Building a bonding line before you need it

If you intend to bid public work, do not wait for the solicitation. Establishing a bonding line means a surety has reviewed your financials and agreed in advance to support jobs up to a certain size, both per job and in aggregate. That review takes time. Contractors who start the process the week a bid is due frequently miss it.

What speeds it up: reviewed or audited financial statements rather than internally prepared ones, a work in progress schedule, a bank line of credit, and clean personal credit for the owners. What slows it down: tax liens, recent losses, and a balance sheet with no working capital.

Public work in more than one state

The federal Miller Act governs federal construction contracts. Every state has enacted its own version, commonly called a Little Miller Act, and the thresholds, notice requirements and claim deadlines vary meaningfully from the federal statute and from each other. Do not assume a project is unbonded because it falls under the federal threshold.

Probate and guardianship bonds

If a court appointed you executor, administrator, guardian or conservator, the judge likely set a bond amount tied to the value of the estate. These are underwritten on the fiduciary's personal credit, and the court's own bond form is mandatory. Attorneys often send clients to us for these because the turnaround matters, and probate schedules do not flex.

Notary bonds

Most states require a notary bond before issuing or renewing a commission, and the required amount and term are set by state law. These are among the least expensive bonds written, they take minutes, and the term generally runs with the length of your commission. If you notarize as part of your job, your employer may cover it.

ERISA fidelity bonds for retirement plans

If your business sponsors a 401(k) or similar plan, federal law requires anyone who handles plan funds to be bonded. The required amount is at least 10 percent of the funds handled in the prior year, with a floor of $1,000 and a ceiling of $500,000 per plan official, rising to $1,000,000 for plans that hold employer securities. The bond is reported on your Form 5500, and a missing one is a well-known audit flag.

Worth being precise about one thing: an ERISA fidelity bond is not fiduciary liability insurance. The bond protects the plan and its participants against theft and dishonesty. Fiduciary liability protects you against claims that you managed the plan badly. Plenty of business owners carry one and assume it is the other.

Not sure which bond you need

Send us the notice, the court order or the licensing packet. The bond type, the obligee and the required amount are almost always printed on it, and reading it correctly the first time is most of the job.

Surety Bond FAQ

Surety bonds, answered without the jargon.

The questions we get in the office, about cost, credit, timing, contractor bonding and what a bond actually does.

What is a surety bond?+
A surety bond is a three-party guarantee. You are the principal, the entity requiring the bond is the obligee, and the carrier issuing it is the surety. The surety guarantees to the obligee that you will meet a specific obligation, whether that is following the rules of your license, completing a construction contract or faithfully administering an estate. It is not insurance protecting you, and if the surety pays a claim you are required to pay it back.
How much does a surety bond cost?+
Premium is generally a percentage of the bond amount, not the bond amount itself. On standard license and permit bonds, applicants with good credit commonly pay somewhere in the range of one to three percent of the bond penalty per year, so a $20,000 bond might run a few hundred dollars annually. Weaker credit, larger bonds and contract surety are priced individually. Notary and ERISA bonds are usually flat-rate and inexpensive.
Can I get bonded with bad credit?+
Usually, yes. Credit is the largest single factor in surety pricing, so poor credit means a higher rate and sometimes a different market, but it rarely means no bond at all. Tell us up front rather than letting it surface in underwriting, because knowing early lets us submit to the right market the first time instead of collecting a decline.
How fast can I get a bond?+
Most standard license, permit and notary bonds can be issued the same business day once we have your application and the obligee's bond form. Court and probate bonds are typically quick as well. Contract bonds for construction take longer because the surety reviews financial statements, so build in time if you are working toward a bid deadline.
What is the difference between a surety bond and insurance?+
Insurance protects you and spreads risk across a pool of policyholders. A surety bond protects the obligee, and the surety expects to be reimbursed for anything it pays out on your behalf. That is the practical difference: an insurance claim ends with the carrier, a bond claim ends with you.
Do I need a bond for every village I work in?+
Often, yes. Contractor license bonds are typically required by the individual municipality, not by the state, so a contractor working across several Lake County villages may need a separate bond for each one, each on that village's own form. We track which bonds you carry and when they come up for renewal.
What is a bonding line and do I need one?+
A bonding line is a surety's advance approval to support your contract bonds up to a certain size, both on a single job and in total backlog. If you plan to bid public work, you want this established before the solicitation, not after. The underwriting review takes time and cannot be rushed at the deadline.
What bonds does a contractor bidding public work need?+
Typically three. A bid bond with the proposal, guaranteeing you will sign if you win. Then a performance bond guaranteeing completion and a payment bond guaranteeing your subs and suppliers get paid. On federal construction contracts, the Federal Acquisition Regulation requires performance and payment bonds above $150,000, and each state has its own Little Miller Act with different thresholds for state and local projects.
Do I need an ERISA bond for my company 401(k)?+
If your business sponsors a funded retirement plan, federal law requires anyone handling plan funds to be bonded for at least 10 percent of the funds they handled in the prior year, subject to a $1,000 minimum and a $500,000 maximum per plan official, or $1,000,000 where the plan holds employer securities. It gets reported on your Form 5500. Note that an ERISA fidelity bond is a different product from fiduciary liability insurance.
Can you write bonds outside Illinois?+
Yes. We are licensed in Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, Tennessee and Wisconsin, so a contractor picking up work across the Wisconsin line or a family with an estate in another state does not need to start over with a new agency. Requirements and bond forms differ by state, which is exactly the part worth handing to one agent.
What do you need from me to get started?+
The obligee's bond form or the notice you were given, which names the bond type and the amount. Then a short application with your business details and, for contract bonds, financial statements. The bond form is the piece people most often leave out, and without it a bond can be issued on the wrong wording and rejected.
Other Coverage

What business owners pair
with their bonds.

A bond satisfies a requirement. It does not protect your business. Most of our bonded clients carry the coverage below alongside it, and running them together means one agent who knows the whole picture.

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Business Insurance
General liability, property, BOP and commercial packages for contractors and small businesses across all five states.
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 🚗
Commercial Auto
If the truck hauls tools or the van makes deliveries, a personal auto policy can quietly exclude the entire claim.
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 ❤️
Life Insurance
Key person and buy-sell funding, plus personal term and whole life priced around what your family would actually need.
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 🏠
Home Insurance
Homeowners coverage with the multi-policy discount applied across your personal and commercial lines.
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Ready to Start?

Need a bond posted
by the end of the week?

Send us the bond form or the notice you were handed and we will tell you what it is, what it costs and how fast we can issue it. Most standard license bonds go out the same day.

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(847) 223-4747