Lockton vs StartupInsurance.ai Surety Bonds

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. ⁴Company-reported. Surety product page as read 2026-09-23. Client count and market-size claims are company-reported.

StartupInsurance.ai does not underwrite or issue surety bonds itself. ContractorNerd Insurance Services, LLC, the licensed property and casualty agency behind the brand, is licensed in all 50 states and arranges placement; its terms describe the company as an insurance agency/producer that does not underwrite insurance. Surety bonds are typically issued by a surety company rather than an insurer in the conventional sense, and the reviewed pages do not distinguish the two. ^8,9,7Company-reported. ContractorNerd's terms and conditions and insurance-licenses page; describes the brokerage's general role, not surety-specific placement terms or which entity type ultimately issues a bond.

The surety page does not name the surety companies Lockton places bonds with. ⁴Not publicly disclosed. Surety page checked 2026-09-23.

The homepage's carrier panel names six insurers at the program level (The Hartford, Chubb, Coalition, Tokio Marine HCC, Travelers and CNA) but does not state which one, if any, issues a given company's surety bond. ⁷Not publicly disclosed. Carrier panel is program-wide rather than broken out by line; the surety company behind a bond is not disclosed on the pages reviewed and varies by placement.

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. ⁴Company-reported. Surety product page as read 2026-09-23. No named industries or minimum bond size were published.

The section frames these seven lines around founders "building robots, hardware, energy or defense tech," saying StartupInsurance.ai treats them as "our daily lines, not our exceptions" — positioning surety bonds as something it arranges regularly for hardware-adjacent startups, rather than as a rare add-on. ⁷Company-reported. Same homepage section; describes the target customer segment StartupInsurance.ai says it serves for this catalogue of lines, not formal underwriting eligibility criteria.

Not described in the reviewed sources.

StartupInsurance.ai lists "Surety" among seven lines in the homepage's "Physical risk, because AI outgrew software" section — Products Liability, Inland Marine, Tools and Equipment, Commercial Auto, Builders Risk, Surety and Property — offered alongside the core startup program of GL, cyber, D&O and related lines. The page uses the word "Surety" rather than "surety bonds," and does not name a bond type. ⁷Company-reported. Homepage "Physical risk, because AI outgrew software" section as read on 2026-09-23; the reviewed page names the line but does not describe bond types (e.g. license, permit, performance), bond amounts, or underwriting terms.

Not described in the reviewed sources.

The reviewed pages do not publish sample bond amounts, bond types, or premium rates for surety bonds. ^7,6Not found in reviewed sources. Homepage and quote-intake screen as read on 2026-09-23; bond amounts would only surface on an actual application.

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. ⁴Company-reported. Surety product page as read 2026-09-23.

Not described in the reviewed sources.

Not described in the reviewed sources.

The physical-risk section's call to action reads "Ask about your insurance requirements →" rather than the "Get Quotes" button used elsewhere on the homepage, indicating surety bonds are discussed with a specialist rather than quoted through a self-serve form. ⁷Company-reported. Homepage "Physical risk, because AI outgrew software" section as read on 2026-09-23; the page does not describe what that conversation covers.

The public quote-application's coverage-selection screen offers seven checkboxes (D&O, Cyber, Tech E&O, EPL, Fiduciary, Crime and GL); Surety is not one of them, so it is not part of that self-serve intake flow. ⁶Not found in reviewed sources. Initial coverage-selection screen of the quote application as read on 2026-09-23; a later screen or specialist conversation could still address this line.