The Guarantee Company of North America

The Guarantee Company of North America is the leading bonding company in Canada.

The types of insurance offered include Fidelity and Surety Bonds, Officers and Directors insurance. In some provinces the Guarantee Company offers more orthodox personal insurance such as Homeowners insurance, personal liability insurance and car insurance. Fidelity Insurance is also known as Crime Insurance. It covers employee dishonesty, robbery, unexplained disappearance of money and forgery. There are specialized policies around credit forgery and computer crime. Directors and Officers Insurance covers directors of a company against legal claims that arise due to their position in the company.

What is Bonding?

Bonding is the practice of insuring against damage or any other contract breach by putting an amount of money as a guarantee for “good behaviour” in much the same way as bail works in criminal law.

Contract Surety is a form of bonding. It covers the losses that can occur if a specific contract is not met. It can be done from various points of view. For example a bid bond is written to cover the party for who the work is carried out (usually a government body) so that if the other party goes bankrupt or refuses to carry out their work then they are compensated. Supply bonds are taken out to compensate a contractor if the expected supplies do not turn up. They tend to be paid for by the supplier and compensate the customer.

Commercial Surety is for those situations that can interrupt a business but are not specific to a single contract. Examples include Customs & Excise bonds, Licence bonds and Lost Document bonds.

Fiduciary Bonds

Fiduciary bonds are a specific type of commercial surety and are often required by those who hold property in trust for others. They are often required by courts. They include trustee in bankruptcy bonds, probate bonds and guardian bonds.

Regional coverage for personal life insurance

The Guarantee Company offers both auto and property insurance in Quebec, Alberta and Ontario. It offers only property insurance in Manitoba. In all the other provinces and all the territories it does not offer any personal life insurance at all. Guarantee Gold is a product offered by the Guarantee Company that aims to insure more expensive homes.

The Guarantee Company Distribution

The Guarantee Company distributes all its products through insurance broker. They sell themselves on a good twenty four hour claims handling service and a stable and conservative accounting policy that has meant that they are more secure than other insurance providers in the credit crunch.

The Guarantee Company USA

The Guarantee Company has a subsidiary in the United States called “The Guarantee Company of North America USA”. They underwrite surety bonds for various types of contractors, but particularly medium sized construction companies. They provide this service to their niche market through most of the United States, which is supplied through independent insurance brokers in much the same way as it is in Canada.

The Guarantee Company History

The Guarantee Company is Canadian owned and has been active since 1872 when it provided fidelity bonds for the builders of Canada’s railways, later branching out to other big engineering contracts. It was the first company in the United States or Canada to offer fidelity bonds. Before this all fidelity bonds for those employees who handled money had to be offered by friends or relatives.