There are many ways to provide market intelligence, but as surety professionals, we need to be very careful not to violate confidentialities. In the surety industry, we are privy to classified financial information, often times across competing contractors and subcontractors, which we cannot divulge. However, surety professionals can still speak in generalities about the financial state of the subcontractor pool and surety marketplace which can prove helpful to many contractors. Specifically, surety professionals can, and should, provide the following (hint: if yours isn’t doing this, they aren’t doing their job):
1. Financial benchmarking information to a client in comparison to other similar contractors in the industry
2. Analysis of the state of the surety marketplace: which sureties are aggressive and which sureties might have loss activity that is making them extra conservative
3. Insight on the building sectors that currently offer the greatest opportunity, i.e. healthcare, multi-family, higher education
4. Insurance trends in the construction industry that will keep a contractor competitive, such as the rise of contractor controlled insurance programs, subcontractor default insurance, and the development of billing rates for personnel that are considered reimbursable
5. JV strategies; and serving as a source of information (and maybe even introduction) if a contractor is unfamiliar with a subcontractor or a potential JV partner
6. Warning on potentially troubled owners who may be unreasonable and unscrupulous and therefore could harm the financial welfare of a client if precautionary measures are not applied
Philadelphia, PA, 19102
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