Surety Bond Blog

Beta Testing Surety Bond Software

Administrator — Fri, 06 Jun 2008 14:55:20 +0000

JW Bond has been beta testing surety bond software for the SuretyBond.org. The software has been in use for our commercial bond division for months now with great success! The system allows us to take an applicant’s information and store it in an online database to help automate the bond process for both our clients and our surety agents.

JW Bond also has also agreed to beta test the contract bond sections of the software scheduled for beta testing late this year.

A New Look For JW Bond

Administrator — Tue, 27 May 2008 19:16:54 +0000

The current design of the JW Bond Consultants website is nearly two years old. Our IT department decided it was time to update the look and feel of the site with some new technologies. The new design should be up and running by sometime in June or July of 08′. The goal of the design is to give our online presence an updated look while making the navigation more user friendly. Our site has grown tremendously over the years and our current template is not designed to efficiently handle a site of our size. New web technologies will allow us to make information within our site more easily found.

So if you see our website with a new look, don’t worry…We are still the same dependable surety agency.

Surety Bond Industry A Good Sign For Economy

Administrator — Mon, 12 May 2008 16:04:17 +0000

It seems everywhere you look these days you hear about the slowing of the U.S. economy. The surety bond industry guarantees construction projects and licenses for companies throughout the country. One could argue that the surety industry is a basic economic health indicator. Fortunately, the surety bond industry is not only keeping afloat during these uncertain times, but may actually show a modest increase. Perhaps the U.S. economy is more resilient than the major media reports indicate.

I have numerous meetings with multiple carriers every year. To my delight, the year has been surprisingly good for every carrier. Some of the carriers write larger contract bonds only, while others only deal with smaller license surety bonds.

During the start of 2008, JW Bond anticipated a decrease in revenue throughout the year due to the troubles stemming from the housing market. There is no doubt our economy is in some turbulent waters, as our agency is seeing a larger amount of cancelled bonds than ever before. Usually, the policies are cancelled due to the principal going out of business. That’s the bad news. On the bright side, our agency is also seeing a record amount of new incoming applications due to new companies being formed. Similar to our carriers, our agency should still show a small increase in revenue for 2008, as well as an increase in overall policies within our book. In other words, we are seeing more start-ups being created than companies going out of business. Hopefully a sign for the general health of the economy.