Michigan surplus lines agent bonds.
From $100.
Michigan licenses surplus lines producers under Chapter 19 of the Insurance Code, MCL 500.1901 and following, and the Department of Insurance and Financial Services (DIFS) is the obligee on the bond when one is called for, in the amount named on your instructions. Premiums cost 1% of the bond amount, $100 minimum.
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How much does a Michigan surplus lines agent bond cost?
1% of the bond amount, from $100. Enter your amount in the calculator for the exact price.
Three steps. One sitting.
No underwriting queue for a standard surplus lines producer bond — enter the amount, pay, and file the executed bond wherever it was asked for. Here is the whole thing:
Apply online
Your agency details, the bond amount named on your instructions, and an effective date. That is the application.
Issued
No credit check up to $100,000, and most applications approve instantly. A larger penal sum may draw a brief underwriter look.
File it
Your executed bond and power of attorney arrive by email, ready to send to DIFS, to the carrier, or to the wholesale broker that asked for it. Wet-ink original mailed on request.
What it is and who needs it.
What the surplus lines bond actually covers
Surplus lines is the market for risk no admitted carrier will write. A surplus lines producer places that business with eligible unauthorized insurers — companies not licensed in Michigan but cleared to write here — and Chapter 19 exists to keep that access orderly. Under MCL 500.1905 nobody may solicit, bind, or otherwise act as an agent or broker in a surplus lines transaction without the license, and DIFS requires an active property and casualty producer license plus the surplus lines examination before it will issue one.
The obligations the bond stands behind are mostly about money the licensee holds or owes the state. MCL 500.1905(3)(d) makes each licensee file a sworn statement of charges for insurance procured and amounts returned on cancellations by February 15 and August 15 for the six-month periods ending December 31 and June 30, and pay a 1% premium tax plus a 0.5% regulatory fee at the same time. MCL 500.1917 protects the insured once a risk is assumed and the licensee has received the premium — the unauthorized insurer is treated as having received it and stays liable to the insured for any loss or unearned premium regardless of whether the licensee itself still owes that money to the insurer — and MCL 500.1913 requires a separate account of every transaction.
Michigan’s statute does not name a bond amount, and the DIFS licensing checklist for a resident surplus lines producer does not list a bond as a step — so when this bond is asked for, the penal sum comes from the party asking: a DIFS filing condition, a carrier or managing general agent agreement, or a wholesale broker’s contract. Enter the figure your instructions name; we issue at whatever amount applies. It is not insurance for you — if the surety pays, you repay the surety.
You need this bond if you are
Claims, renewal, filing, and what sets the price.
If a claim is made
A claim comes from the party the bond protects, the obligee named on the form, when the duty the bond guarantees is not met.
The surety investigates and pays a valid claim, up to the bond amount. You then repay the surety: a surety bond is a guarantee of your performance, not insurance for you.
Renewal and term
The premium covers a one-year term from the effective date you choose.
Renew before the expiry date to keep the bond in force: the license, permit or contract it backs expects continuous coverage.
How to file it
File it. Your executed bond and power of attorney arrive by email, ready to send to DIFS, to the carrier, or to the wholesale broker that asked for it. Wet-ink original mailed on request.
What sets the price
The premium is 1% of the bond amount, $100 minimum: the amount the obligee sets moves the price, not your business profile.
No credit check up to $100,000. Above that, the carrier may run a soft pull, which never affects your score.
Where a check runs, it decides approval; the rate is the same for everyone approved.
One application, no credit check up to $100,000.
These are the actual issuing fields — submit them with the amount named on your instructions. Larger penal sums sometimes draw a brief underwriter look before the bond releases.
Start the application →Common questions.
Other Michigan bonds.
Price and requirements checked on the carrier’s application, . Page updated .
Surplus lines authority waiting on one bond.
Enter the amount your instructions name, see your exact price at the application, and file the same day. Free until issued.