SC surplus lines broker bonds.
$100 flat.
South Carolina licenses the brokers who place business with non-admitted insurers, and the licence is conditioned on a $10,000 bond filed with the Department of Insurance in a form approved by the Attorney General. Ours is $100 flat, and the price you see is the price at checkout. The application collects no credit information, and most applications approve instantly.
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Three steps. One sitting.
The bond is one line item in a licence application that also wants the exam and the biennial fee — and it is the line item you can finish today. The whole process:
Apply online
Your entity details, your NPN, and an effective date. That is the application — no financials, no credit section, no follow-up.
Pay & e-sign
Broker licence bonds are among the thousands of bond types that issue right after purchase. The application collects no credit information, and most applications approve instantly. At most, 1–2 business days.
File with the Department
Your executed bond and power of attorney arrive by email, ready to go in with your licence application or a renewal. Wet-ink original mailed on request.
What it is and who needs it.
What the surplus lines broker bond actually guarantees
Surplus lines is the market of last resort: property and casualty risk that the admitted market will not write, placed instead with a non-admitted insurer that is eligible to accept it. Because those carriers are not backed by the state guaranty fund, South Carolina puts the licensing burden on the person who places the business — the broker, licensed under Title 38, Chapter 45.
The licence is not a standalone credential. Section 38-45-20 builds it on top of an existing resident property and casualty producer licence for the same lines, adds the South Carolina broker examination, adds a biennial fee, and adds the $10,000 bond — executed by a corporate surety licensed to transact surety insurance in this State, in a form approved by the Attorney General, in favour of South Carolina.
The bond is consumer-facing. It is conditioned to pay a person insured, or seeking insurance, through the broker who sustains a loss as a result of the broker’s violation of or failure to comply with an insurance law or regulation of this State; the broker’s failure to transmit properly a payment received, whether cash or credit; or an act of fraud committed by the broker in connection with an insurance transaction. Those three triggers are the whole scope.
It sits alongside the rest of the chapter’s duties — due diligence in placing the risk under §38-45-90, the surplus lines warning stamped on the policy under §38-45-110, the broker’s personal liability on a policy of an unlicensed insurer under §38-45-120, records under §38-45-80, and the premium tax the broker remits. It is not insurance for you: if the surety pays a claim, you repay the surety, and the Department can act on the licence besides.
You need this bond if you’re
One application, issued instantly.
These are the actual issuing fields — your entity details and your NPN. There is no credit section, because this application does not collect credit information.
Start the application →Common questions.
Other South Carolina bonds.
Broker licence waiting on one filing.
$100 flat, no credit section in the application, bond often issued in the same sitting. Free until issued.