Protect Your Maryland Business With A Fidelity Bond
Imagine that an employee is at your customer’s home and steals a diamond tennis bracelet that was lying on the kitchen counter. The customer calls you to replace the bracelet for her. If you don’t replace it, it could result in the client speaking bad about your business, giving you negative reviews online and thus costing you business. If you do replace it then there is money going out of your pocket to cover the error of your employee. Either way, you, the business owner loses. This is where a fidelity bond would come into play.
If you have a fidelity bond you would not have to pay that claim. The bonding company would pay that claim on your behalf. This bond saves your business of a loss of reputation, and saving your pocket book from having to pay and unnecessary claims.
Fidelity bonds can be purchased in amounts as small as $5,000 to several hundred of thousand dollars. The minimum premium for a fidelity bond is $125.
Real Life Example:
A business in Severna Park had the same office manager/bookkeeper for the 20+ years. She had keys to the office and the ability to write checks. She also handled the day to day issues of the business.
Suddenly the amount in the bank accounts started decreasing. The business owner questioned her on what was happening. The bookkeeper blamed the economy and sales being down as the cause. After months crunching the numbers, the business owner discovered that the bookkeeper was using the business account to pay her personal expenses. When she was confronted, she quit. The business owner discovered that she dis not have the money to repay the thousands she stole.
A fidelity bond would have provided the method for the business owner to recoup the amount that he lost.
Any business that has an employee has a need to have a fidelity bond.
The following are examples of fidelity bonds:
Employee Dishonesty Bond
Do you want to protect yourself from employee theft? Employee Dishonesty is a type of fidelity bond. It guarantees against loss caused by a dishonest officer or employee by a business or public official or nonprofit.
Business Services Bond
Do you want to protect your clients from theft committed by your employees? We are commonly seeing certificate of insurance requirements looking for $1,000,000 of fidelity coverage.
Commercial Crime Bond
Do you want to cover more than just employees? Commercial crime is really more like insurance than a typical bond. Crime insurance can cover more than just employee dishonesty. It can include employee theft, forgery or alteration, theft of money or securities inside or outside the premises, computer fraud, money orders, robbery or safe burglary of other property, and money orders and counterfeit currency.
ERISA Bonds
The Employee Retirement Income Security Act requires this bond for employees who offer 401(k) or other retirement plans. The ERISA bond must be equal to 10% of the assets managed up to a $500,000 maximum bond amount. For example, if your plan had $2,000,000 in assets, you would need a bond for $200,000They are in place to protect the plan from misappropriation of funds.
Fidelity bonds usually require that criminal charges be brought against the employee. Some require that the employee has to be found guilty of the crime for the bond to reimburse.
To obtain more information or a quote for a fidelity or dishonesty bond, please call Huff Insurance at 410-647-1111. Or fill out the quote form on this page. The professionals at Huff Insurance are here to help.
Don’t Let an Employee Steal Your Business!
