A company cannot change or misrepresent its legal ownership for the sole purpose of lowering insurance premium costs. Misrepresenting or omitting company or business ownership information when submitting a surety bond application is a form of insurance fraud.
The ownership information your obligee and surety have should always match perfectly. Whether you're starting a new business or making an ownership change to an existing business, you should always verify ownership with the entity requiring your bond (also known as the "obligee") before submitting a new or existing bond request.
Legitimate business ownership changes can occur for a number of reasons throughout a company's lifetime. If your original bond was underwritten and your company's ownership structure changes, the account will require an updated application and will be re-underwritten in consideration of the change. Depending on the underwriter, additional information or documentation related to the ownership change might be required to keep the existing bond in good standing or have a new bond issued. Bonds are not always transferrable across owners, so updating ownership mid-term might require a whole new bond be purchased/issued.
If you'd like to make a legally filed ownership change for your existing company and bond, you must verify with the obligee exactly how they'd like you to process the change and what documentation you'll need to provide.
If you need to notify us of a legitimate ownership change to your company, call 1 (800) 308-4358 or email customercare@suretybonds.com, and one of our friendly representatives will review your account and walk you through the next steps.