Buy a Bond/Initial Bond Information Page (CSR/Admin User)

Overview of Buying a Bond

After bond configurations are built in Tinubu Surety Solution for Carriers (TSC), bonds can then be bought to conduct live business, as well as for testing purposes.
Keep in mind that according to the set up for each bond configuration, the buy a bond process can be very different for each one. There are multiple factors that determine how the buy a bond process is handled, including bond configuration specific setup, application folder setup, and system-wide settings.
Select CSR/Underwriting/Buy a Bond to begin purchasing a bond.

The user will advance through the screens to fill out the initial information for the bond. The list of fields to be completed will include the fields that were configured for the bond configuration being used. Any field that is marked with an * is mandatory.

A Producer of Record can be designated for a bond. The options available for this list is driven from the agents within the agency being used to purchase the bond, which are designated as a Producer of Record in the agent setup. This feature is for reporting purposes only, and does not drive functionality within TSC. If there are no agents within the agency designated as a Producer of Record, this dropdown will be hidden.

Bonds are required to have a designated Attorney-In-Fact (AIF). The AIF options are driven from the agents within the chosen agency that are designated as an AIF, and the AIFs for the carrier for the chosen bond configuration. Agency AIFs will be noted with an ‘A’ before the name, and Carrier AIFs will be noted with a ‘C’ before the name.
The Attorney-In-Fact field can be turned off with the SuppressEsuretyAttorneyInFact setting. This setting is to be used in tandem with an Attorney-In-Fact question group which would have users enter the AIF information manually for each bond application.

A responsible underwriter should be designated for each bond. The responsible underwriter list is driven by the type of user purchasing the bond:
For CSR or Admin users who are not branch restricted, the responsible underwriter list will included all CSR and Admin type users that have at least one branch assigned to them, and have an authority level greater than 0 for the module being used.
For CSR or Admin users who are branch restricted, the responsible underwriter list will included all CSR and Admin type user that are not branch restricted and any branch restricted user assigned to the current branch being used.
For Agent and Consumer users, the responsible underwriter will be selected by default. Agent and Consumer users do not see nor have the ability to assign the responsible underwriter. The default user set to be the responsible underwriter will be the Branch Representative for the Branch for the agency being used. If there is no branch representative, the default user set to be the responsible underwriter will be CSR or Admin users that have an authority level greater than 0 for the module being used. From this list, the default selection will be made by the first user available sorted alphabetically by the user's last name.

Enter the date for the bond to become effective. Bonds can be pre-dated and post-dated within the limits designated for the bond configuration.

Enter the month and day of the month for the applicant's birthday, which will be the date of expiration for the bond.

Enter the month and day of the month for the desired expiration date of the bond.

For contract bonds, the user will be prompted to enter an estimated completion date for the work defined in the contract.

This field is to enter the amount of the bond. For commercial bonds this can be a fixed number (which cannot be altered on this page), a variable type penalty (any amount can be entered between two pre-established numbers on the bond configuration), or a penalty dropdown (designated on the bond configuration). For contract bonds, generally a variable type penalty (as described above) is used. The naming of the field differs between commercial bonds, contract bid bonds, and contract final bonds.

Users should enter the full amount of the retainage bond. The system will determine what percentage of the base penalty this amount represents, multiply it by 1% to obtain the retainage premium, and add it to the base premium.

Maintenance Rates can be applied for contract bonds. A default maintenance rate is designated on the bond configuration, but this can be changed to an alternate maintenance rate on this page.

Users should enter the number of years for the maintenance rate. The ‘Maintenance Years’ field will be available when a bond configuration is using a maintenance rate to establish the years for the rate. If the value entered is 2 or greater, the system will calculate the additional maintenance premium based on the maintenance rate specified.

Users can be allowed to enter an existing bond number that will override the system generated bond number. Permission to enter an existing bond number is an allowed action.

A bond user version value can be entered to indicate that the bond being entered manually is an existing bond in another system, and this version is a subsequent version of this same bond.

If a premium rate definition is being used on a bond configuration, dropdowns will appear to establish the values to determine which premium rate will be used for the bond.

For commercial bonds with an annual expiration type, a number of pre-paid years can be allowed per bond configuration. If the bond configuration allows any pre-paid years, the Pre-Pay dropdown will appear allowing the bond to be valid for the selected number of years. This will calculate premium for each year, but the bond will not expire until the end of the number of years selected.

For contract bonds, the risk state should be entered. This selection will define the state surcharges that could be charged for the bond. The states available in the list are limited to the states marked as 'Risk States' in the States section of the admin users menu.
For commercial bonds, the state surcharges are defined by the state for the bond configuration.

Once entries to all required fields have been made, click Next to continue to the question groups to be answered for this bond configuration.