Fidelity Bonds
Protect Your Business. Protect Your Customers. Meet Your Bonding Requirements.
Employee theft, fraud and dishonesty can create financial losses for a business—and for the customers who trust your employees with access to their property, money or other assets.
Fidelity bonds are designed to provide protection against certain losses caused by dishonest acts. Depending on your situation, the bond may protect your business, your customer or an employee benefit plan.
At Anderson & Catania Surety Services, surety bonds are all we do. We'll help you understand which type of fidelity bond you need, explain the cost and make the process of obtaining coverage straightforward.
What Type of Fidelity Bond Do I Need?
The right fidelity bond depends primarily on who needs to be protected and whose money or property is at risk.
Employee Dishonesty Bonds
Protecting Your Business
Employee dishonesty bonds, sometimes referred to as first-party fidelity bonds, protect a business against certain financial losses caused by dishonest acts of its own employees.
These bonds may provide protection against losses involving:
- Employee theft
- Embezzlement
- Forgery
- Misappropriation of funds
- Theft of money, securities or other property
Coverage can often be structured to protect against dishonest acts by employees broadly or, depending on the circumstances, specific individuals or positions.
If your employees handle company money, have access to bank accounts, manage inventory or control other valuable business assets, employee dishonesty coverage can be an important part of your risk-management program.
Business Services Bonds
Protecting Your Customers
Does your company send employees into a customer's home, office or facility?
A business services bond, often referred to as a third-party fidelity bond, is designed to protect customers against certain losses caused by dishonest acts of your employees while providing services.
These bonds are commonly used by businesses such as:
- Janitorial and commercial cleaning companies
- Home healthcare and caregiving companies
- Property management and maintenance companies
- Contractors and service technicians
- Security and staffing companies
- IT and technology service providers
- Other businesses whose employees work at customer locations or have access to customer property
Customers may require this coverage before allowing your employees access to their facilities, property or sensitive assets.
Being able to demonstrate that your employees are bonded can also provide an additional level of confidence when customers are deciding who they trust to enter their homes or businesses.
ERISA Fidelity Bonds
Protecting Employee Benefit Plans
ERISA fidelity bonds are different from traditional employee dishonesty and business services bonds.
Federal law generally requires individuals who handle the funds or other property of certain employee benefit plans to be bonded. The bond protects the plan itself against losses resulting from fraud or dishonesty by individuals who handle plan assets.
In most cases, the required bond amount is based on the amount of plan funds handled during the preceding year, subject to applicable federal minimum and maximum requirements.
We can help employers, plan sponsors, administrators and their advisors understand the bonding requirement and determine the appropriate bond amount.
First-Party vs. Third-Party Fidelity Bonds
One of the easiest ways to understand fidelity coverage is to ask who needs protection?
First-party fidelity bonds protect your business.
If your employee steals money or property from your company and the loss falls within the bond's coverage, your business is the party being protected.
Third-party fidelity bonds protect your customers.
If your employee steals money or property belonging to a customer while performing services, the coverage is structured to protect against that third-party loss. Some businesses need one type of coverage. Others may need both.
We'll help you understand the difference and identify the fidelity bond that fits your particular situation.
What Can You Expect From Us?
Someone Asked Me to Provide Proof That My Employees Are Bonded. What Do I Need?
Start by sending us the contract, insurance requirement or other document requesting the bond.
The word “bonded” can mean different things depending on the business relationship. Rather than assuming which product is required, we'll review the requirement and help you determine the appropriate fidelity bond and bond amount.
What Information Will I Need?
Getting started is usually straightforward.
Depending on the type of fidelity bond, we may ask for basic information about your business, number of employees, nature of your operations, requested bond amount and the duties performed by employees who have access to money or property.
For third-party fidelity requirements, providing the contract or bonding specifications from your customer can be particularly helpful.
For an ERISA fidelity bond, we'll need information about the employee benefit plan and plan assets.
We'll review what you have and let you know what else is needed.
Need a Fidelity Bond?
Whether you need to protect your own business, satisfy a customer's bonding requirement or meet an ERISA requirement, we'll help you identify the right bond and get it in place.
Surety bonds are all we do—and we've been doing them for more than three decades.
Tell us what you're trying to protect or send us the bond requirement you've received. We'll explain your options, outline the cost and help you move forward.
What to Expect
When you contact AC Surety, you'll speak directly with an experienced surety professional who will take the time to understand your business, answer your questions, and discuss the bonding options that best align with your goals. Whether you're new to bonding or managing a sophisticated bonding program, our objective is to provide practical guidance—not a sales pitch.