| Fidelity Bond (traditional) | Commercial Crime Policy | |
|---|---|---|
| Core peril | Employee dishonesty | Employee dishonesty plus external fraud |
| Forgery/alteration | Sometimes | Standard insuring agreement |
| Computer & funds-transfer fraud | No | Standard agreements |
| Social engineering | No | By endorsement — the key add |
| Where bonds persist | ERISA plans, client contracts | — |
Where the confusion comes from
“We’re bonded” answers a client’s contract question and quietly under-describes protection: a bare dishonesty bond leaves forgery, computer fraud, and spoofed-wire losses — today’s actual loss patterns — unaddressed.
The ERISA bond confusion recurs: it protects plan assets, satisfies a statute, and does nothing for company funds; the crime policy does the company’s work.
When you need both
The modern program: a crime policy with social-engineering endorsement sized to your largest routine transfer, the ERISA bond beside it for the plan, and client-required bonds as contracts demand — three instruments, one coordinated placement. Explore D&O insurance, cyber liability, and fiduciary liability, or start with employment practices liability.
A claim that lands in the gap
A controller’s five-year skim is bond-and-crime territory alike — but the same company’s spoofed-vendor wire finds only the crime form’s endorsement responding.
A janitorial firm’s client contract demands “bonding”; the crime policy’s third-party client-coverage endorsement satisfies it without a separate bond at all.
Scenarios are illustrative composites, not descriptions of actual claims or outcomes. Whether any claim is covered depends on the policy issued.
How to decide
- Audit what your “bond” actually grants — dishonesty alone is half a policy now.
- Add social engineering at limits matching real transfers.
- Keep the ERISA bond distinct and compliant as plans grow.
- Client bonding requirements often resolve by endorsement — bring us the contract.
We market your account and you compare terms side by side — no obligation.
Get Multiple Quotes within minutesFrequently asked questions
- Client contracts say “bonded and insured.” What satisfies it?
- Usually a crime policy with client-property/third-party coverage — certificates make it visible. We paper to the contract.
- Does crime coverage overlap cyber?
- At funds-transfer fraud, deliberately — our cyber-vs-crime comparison maps that seam and where to place the grant.
- Are owners covered stealing from their own company?
- Principals are typically excluded — crime protects the entity from employees, not partners from each other; that dispute is D&O’s neighborhood.
- What drives crime pricing?
- Controls — dual approval, reconciliation cadence, call-back verification — more than headcount. Good procedure is literal premium.
Provident Financial Group is an independent insurance agency, not a carrier. We place coverage for crime insurance vs. fidelity bonds in New Jersey, New York, Connecticut, Vermont, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Michigan, Kansas, North Carolina, South Carolina, the District of Columbia, Virginia, Maryland, Delaware, Georgia, Florida, Texas, California, Kentucky, Massachusetts, Indiana, Nevada, and Arizona.