MA Market Share Report 2019: The Top Fidelity & Surety Insurers

Agency Checklists takes a look at the size and composition of the Fidelity & Surety marketplace in Massachusetts.

According to Wikipedia, the earliest known record of a contract of suretyship is a Mesopotamian tablet written around 2750 B.C. It is also mentioned in the written legal code of the Code of Hammurabi, which is often cited as the earliest surviving evidence of its existence. Further archaeological evidence shows the importance of surety bonds throughout the ages. Many civilizations incorporated surety insurance into their laws including, but not limited to, Babylon, Persia, Assyria, Rome, Carthage, as well as the ancient Hebrews. In more modern times, the first corporate surety, the Guarantee Society of London, was created in 1840.

Fast Facts about the state of the modern Fidelity & Surety Marketplace

According to the Surety & Fidelity Association of America, 2017 marked the second year in a row that the surety industry has experienced “record growth.”
More specifically, Total Direct Premium Written increased from $5.9 billion to $6.2 billion in 2017, marking the fifth straight year of increases.
The largest premium increases occurred in private contract bonds and judicial court guarantee bonds.
Other areas seeing premium growth include
- airport buildings at state/municipal,
- federal and private level;
- private building and building related construction;
- private completion bonds;
- state/municipal subdivision bonds;
- coal reclamation bonds;
- and mechanic’s lien bonds.

And Massachusetts? A look at the state of the marketplace here as of 2017. As always, our data here comes courtesy of the Massachusetts Division of Insurance and is the latest year for which complete data is available.

Premium and market share for the Top 20 insurers in the Fidelity & Surety marketplace

While not one of the largest insurance lines in the state, Total Direct Written Premium for 2017 in the Commonwealth was still a respectable $190,784,974. As for the number of companies writing this line of insurance, the number in 2017 is 162, down from the 173 companies which wrote Fidelity & Surety insurance in Massachusetts in 2016.

The Total Direct Written Premium for the Top 20 companies in this line totaled $155,407,848 representing a market share of 81.5%. The remaining 142 companies had a wrote approximately $35,377,126 in Total Direct Written Premium representing the remaining 18.5% market share for this line of business.

Are there any top insurers that are based in Massachusetts as well?

Yes. Only two of the top 20 insurers hail from Massachusetts. As of 2017, Liberty Mutual Ins Co. was the top writer with $30,575,141 in Premium Written in Massachusetts. This translates into a 16.03% share of the marketplace. The second Mass.-based company is United Casualty & Surety Insurance Co. which is ranked as the 18th largest writer in the Commonwealth with a 1.12% share of the market.

The complete list of the top 20 Fidelity & Surety insurers

Company Name	State	Premium Written/MA	Market Share/MA
1. Liberty Mutual Ins Co	MA	$30,575,141	16.03%
2. Travelers Cas & Surety Co of America	CT	$27,267,787	14.29%
3. Federal Ins Co$	IN	$16,970,500	8.90%
4. Fidelity & Deposit Co. of MD	MD	$16,367,870	8.58%
5. Western Surety Co	SD	$14,891,162	7.81%
6. Great Amer Ins Co	OH	$4,688,492	2.46%
7. Hartford Fire Ins Co	CT	$4,367,519	2.29%
8. Arch Ins Co.	MO	$4,177,677	2.19%
9. North Amer Specialty Ins Co	NH	$4,172,894	2.19%
10. National Union Fire Ins Co of Pitts	PA	$3,933,825	2.06%
11. Hanover Ins Co	NH	$3,755,626	1.97%
12. Ohio Cas Ins Co	NH	$3,559,863	1.87%
13. NGM Ins Co	FL	$3,352,798	1.76%
14. Berkley Ins Co	DE	$3,246,272	1.70%
15. Philadelphia Ind Ins Co	PA	3,234,535	1.70%
16. Zurich Amer Ins Co	NY	2,670,694	1.40%
17. Westchester Fire Ins Co	PA	2,377,381	1.25%
18. United Cas & Surety Ins Co	MA	2,131,822	1.12%
19. International Fidelity Ins Co	NJ	1,851,106	0.97%
20. Continental Cas Co	IL	1,814,884	0.95%