Gallagher vs 
Lockton: How Do They Compare for Surety Bonds?
Gallagher places commercial surety for industries such as health care, finance, and utilities; Lockton describes surety brokerage support and helps clients establish or maintain bond programs.
Gallagher’s commercial surety practice places license, court, public official and customs bonds and describes replacing letters of credit. Lockton brokers surety with statement analysis, backlog and peer-rate tools, without publishing a bond-type menu or named sureties. 1,3
What Are the Key Differences Between Gallagher and Lockton Surety Bonds?
Named Commercial Forms Versus Unlisted Instruments
Gallagher and Lockton both broker surety. Gallagher lists license and permit, court, public official and customs bonds on its commercial surety page and treats contract surety as separate. Lockton’s reviewed surety page does not list those forms; it describes a large brokerage (more than 2,000 clients, by its account) and a tailored service model. 1 3 Choose Gallagher if you can map the obligee form to license, court, public official, or customs wording, or need a letter-of-credit swap; choose Lockton if you want a broker to analyze financials, backlog, and safety around a surety program.
You can map an obligee’s request to Gallagher’s commercial headings. With Lockton, the reviewed page does not tell you whether the placement will be a customs bond or a performance bond. 1 3
Two Service Toolkits
Gallagher’s documented services include replacing letters of credit, working an existing surety program and facilitating collateral release. Lockton’s documented services include financial statement analysis and credit rating, weighted backlog analysis, peer financial and rate comparisons, profit-trend analysis and safety-record review. 1 3
Those are different work products: Gallagher’s examples are credit-facility substitution; Lockton’s are contractor-style analytics. Gallagher names industries (healthcare, financial services, utilities, small IT). Lockton does not name industries or a minimum bond size. 1 2 3
Neither publishes standard rates or names sureties. Gallagher refers to leadership at major surety companies without listing them. 1 3
What Should You Confirm in Gallagher and Lockton Surety Bonds Quotes?
- Ask Lockton which bond type it will place against Gallagher’s commercial list, and who handles Gallagher contract surety if you need a job bond. 3 1
- Ask whether you need LOC replacement (Gallagher) or backlog/peer-rate analysis (Lockton). 1 3
- Get issuing surety and penal sum from both. 1 3
- Confirm Gallagher’s international commercial work versus Lockton’s unnamed industry mix. 1 3
Gallagher vs Lockton Surety Bonds Compared
Gallagher vs Lockton: Surety Bonds: documented features by provider
| Criteria | Gallagher Commercial Surety Bonds | Lockton Surety Brokerage |
|---|---|---|
| Who It’s For | Gallagher says it serves commercial surety clients across healthcare, financial services, public utilities, and private and public companies, for both domestic and international projects, and separately lists surety bond programs as a recommended coverage for small IT and technology businesses. 1,2Company-reported. Group-level commercial surety practice page and the small-business technology-services page. | Lockton says it represents clients across a wide range of industries and tailors its surety service model to each client rather than a single standard approach. 3Company-reported. Surety product page as read 2026-09-23. No named industries or minimum bond size were published. |
| Role in This Line | Gallagher places commercial surety bonds as a three-party arrangement between the client (principal), the party requiring the bond (obligee) and a surety company; Gallagher brokers the bond rather than acting as the surety itself. 1Company-reported. Group-level commercial surety practice page. | Lockton Surety brokers surety bonds and says it has become one of the largest surety brokers in the world, representing more than 2,000 clients across industries. Lockton is the broker facilitating the bond relationship, not the surety. 3Company-reported. Surety product page as read 2026-09-23. Client count and market-size claims are company-reported. |
| Risk Services | Gallagher says its surety team can help replace letters of credit with bonds, work with a client's existing surety program, and facilitate collateral release, citing a case where it placed commercial surety bonds in place of letters of credit to support $60 million in power-purchase obligations for an energy-company client. 1Company-reported. Group-level commercial surety practice page case study; a single company-reported example, not independently verified. | Lockton lists data-driven surety services it provides: financial statement analysis and credit rating, weighted backlog analysis, financial and rate peer comparisons and benchmarking, individual project and composite profit trend analysis, and detailed safety record review. 3Company-reported. Surety product page as read 2026-09-23. |
