GA surplus lines broker bonds.
$500 flat.

What the bond actually guarantees

A surplus lines broker is the licensee Georgia lets place coverage with insurers that are not admitted in the state — the risks no admitted carrier will write. Because that broker handles other people’s premium money and owes the state a tax on it, O.C.G.A. § 33-23-37 makes a bond part of the licence itself. It is executed by the applicant as principal and by a corporate surety authorised to do business in Georgia, in the penal sum of $50,000, for the benefit of any person injured by a violation of its conditions.

The statute spells the conditions out, and they are worth reading as the actual scope of what you are guaranteeing: that you will place insurance only in compliance with O.C.G.A. § 33-5-25; that you will promptly remit the taxes provided in O.C.G.A. § 33-5-31 — the 4% surplus lines premium tax, paid with the quarterly affidavit due on the fifteenth of April, July, October, and January; that you will account to any person requesting insurance for funds or premiums collected in connection with it; and that you will otherwise conduct business in accordance with Title 33. The tax obligation is the one that most often turns into a claim.

Two timing details decide whether your licence stays clean. First, the bond cannot be terminated unless 30 days’ written notice is filed with the Commissioner beforehand — cancellation is a regulator-visible event, not a quiet one between you and the carrier. Second, the licence is issued on a biennial basis and expires on the last day of your birth month, so the bond has to outlive a renewal cycle that does not line up with a calendar year. We track the term and send renewal notices 60 and 30 days out. It is not insurance for you — if the surety pays a claim, you repay the surety.

You need this bond if you’re