Surety Bond Lookup

Check three things independently, not just the bond document itself. First, the surety (the insurance company backing the bond) — if it's securing a federal obligation, search Treasury's Circular 570 list of certified companies; for a state bond, search that state's Department of Insurance company lookup to confirm the carrier is admitted or authorized to write business there. Second, the producer (the agent or agency that sold it) — search their license on the state DOI's producer lookup or NAIC's national lookup, and confirm the license is active, not expired or revoked. Third, and most reliable: call the obligee — the court, agency, or municipality that required the bond — and ask if they have it on file. A bond that was never actually delivered to the obligee protects no one, no matter how legitimate the paperwork looks.

Not necessarily. Circular 570 only lists companies certified under 31 U.S.C. §§ 9304-9308 to write or reinsure federal bonds — bonds securing an obligation to the U.S. government, like a customs bond or a federal contract bond. The large majority of bonds people search for (contractor license, notary, auto dealer, court, mortgage broker) are state-required, not federal, and their sureties never need to appear on Circular 570 at all. For a state bond, the right check is the state DOI's company or complaint-search lookup, not Circular 570.

Every state requires anyone who sells surety bonds to hold an active resident or non-resident insurance producer license, and that license is public record. Search the producer's name or National Producer Number (NPN) on your state's Department of Insurance license lookup, or use NAIC's national lookup tool, which covers producer licenses across jurisdictions from a single search. Confirm the license status reads "active" (not expired, suspended, or revoked) and that the producer is appointed to sell for the surety company named on your bond — a license alone doesn't mean they're authorized to place business with that specific carrier.

That's the clearest red flag this tool surfaces. A surety authorized to do business anywhere in the U.S. is registered with at least one state insurance department, and if you can't find the company on Treasury's Circular 570 (for federal bonds) or any state DOI's company database, do not treat the bond as valid. Contact the obligee directly, explain what you found, and ask how they'd like you to proceed — most agencies would rather flag a bad bond before it's needed than discover it's worthless when a claim is filed.

You can verify the surety and the producer entirely online using the lookups above — that covers two of the three checks in a few minutes. The third check, confirming the obligee actually has the bond on file, generally requires a phone call or email, because most courts, licensing boards, and municipalities don't publish a public database of bonds filed with them. For a bond you're about to rely on for something important (a license renewal, a court filing, a contract requirement), that call is worth the five minutes — it's the one check that catches a bond that was never delivered at all, which the other two checks can't detect.

The same way — we do not ask you to take our word for it. Eric Drummond is licensed as a surety producer in Nevada under Producer #4222379; search that number on the Nevada Division of Insurance producer lookup (link below) to confirm it is active. Our legal entity is Mainline Holdings LLC, and every bond we place is written by a carrier that appears on the applicable lookup — Treasury Circular 570 for federal bonds, the relevant state DOI company search for state bonds. Run the same three checks on us that this page teaches for anyone else.