CO self-insuring employer bonds.
From $100. Enter your amount.
Colorado lets a large employer pay its own workers' compensation claims instead of buying a policy — but only under a special self-insurance permit from the Executive Director of the Department of Labor and Employment, and only against security the Executive Director accepts. A surety bond on the prescribed form is one of those accepted forms, and the security floor is $300,000. Our premium is priced at 1.5% of the bond amount, with a $100 minimum.
Trusted by industry leaders
Apply to filed in one sitting.
The permit is the long part; the bond is not. Enter the amount your self-insurance packet prescribes, pay, and file the executed bond with the Division. Here is the whole thing:
Apply online
Your company details, your self-insurance permit block number, the security amount the Executive Director prescribed, and the effective date — plus a one-time consent that authorizes a soft credit pull.
Pay & e-sign
Your price is final at checkout — 1.5% of the bond amount, with a $100 minimum. The application includes a credit consent, but it authorizes a soft credit pull only — a soft inquiry that never affects your score. No hard inquiry ever runs on this bond.
File with the Division of Workers' Compensation
Your executed bond and power of attorney arrive by email, ready to file with your self-insurance application, your renewal, or a security increase the Director has ordered. Wet-ink originals mailed on request.
What it is and who needs it.
What the self-insurance bond actually guarantees
Colorado employers must carry workers' compensation coverage, and most buy it from an insurer or from Pinnacol Assurance. A third route exists: self-insurance. Under C.R.S. § 8-44-201 the Executive Director of the Department of Labor and Employment may grant an employer permission to be its own insurance carrier, and holds the sole power to prescribe the rules, terms and conditions on which that permit is granted or continued — and to revoke it at any time, at which point the employer must immediately insure the liability elsewhere.
The permit is not casual. Under the self-insurance rules at 7 CCR 1101-4 an applicant is expected to regularly employ at least 300 employees in Colorado, a threshold the Executive Director may waive for a corporation meeting stated financial tests — total assets of $100,000,000 or more, a current ratio of 1.5:1 or better, or long-term debt to tangible net worth of 1:1.5 or less. A permitted self-insurer also carries specific excess insurance with limits and retentions the Director accepts, and aggregate excess may be required as a condition of approval.
The bond is the security behind all of it. It runs to the state and stands behind payment of the claims you have taken onto your own balance sheet, so an injured worker is not left exposed if the employer fails. Accepted security includes cash, government bonds, certificates of deposit and other liquid forms bound in trust, an irrevocable letter of credit, or a surety bond on the Executive Director's prescribed form from a surety authorized by the Colorado Insurance Commissioner — and it carries a 90-day notice before a surety may terminate liability. It is not insurance for you: if the surety pays, you repay the surety.
You need this bond if you are
One application, issued instantly.
These are the actual issuing fields — including your self-insurance permit block number and a one-time consent that authorizes a soft credit pull only. Your exact price is set at the application from a $100 minimum.
Start the application →Common questions.
Other Colorado bonds.
Post the security and keep the permit.
Premiums from $100, soft pull only, and your price is final at checkout. Enter the amount the Executive Director prescribed and file the bond the same day. Free until issued.