An Indiana employer that wants to pay worker’s compensation directly instead of buying a policy has to satisfy the Worker’s Compensation Board of Indiana that it can. Under IC 22-3-5-1 the Board may require security, and its published self-insurance requirements make a surety bond mandatory in a minimum amount of $500,000. Premiums cost 2% of the bond amount, $100 minimum. Enter the amount the Board set for your program and your exact price appears at the application.
















The bond is one line item in a much longer self-insurance application — and it is the line item you can close today. Here is the whole thing:
Your entity details, years in business, the bond amount your program requires, and an effective date. That is the entire application for the bond itself — the audited financials and excess-insurance certificates go to the Board, not to us.
Most applications approve instantly. Because this bond starts at six figures, larger amounts may draw a brief underwriter review — the application includes a credit consent, but it authorizes a soft credit pull only, a soft inquiry that never affects your score.
Send the executed bond to the Worker’s Compensation Board with your initial or renewal application. A valid surety bond must be on file with the Board at all times, so file it before your certificate lapses. Wet-ink originals mailed whenever the Board insists.
IC 22-3-5-1 gives every Indiana employer covered by the Worker’s Compensation Act and the Occupational Diseases Act two choices: insure the liability with an authorized worker’s compensation carrier, or furnish the Worker’s Compensation Board of Indiana with satisfactory proof of financial ability to pay compensation directly. The second route is individual self-insurance, and the Board grants it by certificate. The statute expressly lets the Board require the deposit of acceptable security, indemnity, or a bond to secure payment of compensation liabilities as they are incurred.
The Board’s published requirements turn that discretion into a rule: a surety bond is required as part of a self-insured program in a minimum amount of $500,000. It is not a token filing. The bond runs to the Board for the benefit of your injured employees — if you stop paying compensation the Board can call on the surety, and the surety then looks to you for reimbursement. It is not insurance for your company. It sits alongside the rest of the program: an audited financial statement prepared within the last six months, five continuous years in business (or a parent guarantee on Form SI-4), specific and aggregate excess insurance evidenced on Form SI-3, and competent claims administration.
The filing is a standing obligation, not a one-time hurdle. A valid surety bond or other approved security must be on file with the Board at all times, and your certificate of self-insurance expires on August 31 each year, with the renewal application due no less than thirty days before expiration together with a current financial statement. A bond may be exchanged or replaced only if 60 days notice of termination of liability is given and the Chairman approves the replacement — and if the Board receives a cancellation notice, that alone is grounds for terminating your self-insured status unless an acceptable replacement bond is on file before the cancellation takes effect.
Submit the application with the bond amount the Board requires. Because these start at six figures, larger amounts may get a brief underwriter look — the credit consent in this application authorizes a soft pull only.
Start the application →Enter the amount your self-insured program requires and file it before your certificate lapses. From $100, soft pull only. Free until issued.