Fidelity Bond for Officers of Florida HOAs & COAs

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A fidelity bond, also know as commercial crime insurance is statutory requirement for officers and directors of homewowners' associations in the state of Florida unless unanimously waived. Pursuant to 720.3033(5), an association must maintain a fidelity bond to cover all persons who control or disburse funds of the association. The HOA fidelity bond must cover the maximum funds that will be in the custody of the association or property management agency at any one time. "Persons who control or disburse funds of the association” includes but is not limited to those individuals authorized to sign checks on behalf of the association, as well as the association's president, secretary, and treasurer. The association as a whole bears the cost of the fidelity bond. If a majority of the voting interests present at a properly called annual meeting of the association chooses to waive the requirement of obtaining a fidelity bond for all persons who control or disburse funds of the association then this section does not apply however we strongly recommend appropriate coverage as only one dishonesty loss can lead to a HOA or COA insolvency. Our fidelity bond coverages are broad, providing protection for common commercial crime losses.

• Employee theft
• Depositors forgery or alteration
• Theft, disappearance and/or destruction of money and securities
• Robbery and safe burglary
• Computer Crime (theft, funds transfer fraud, etc.)
• Counterfeit currency/money orders

Coverages may be broadened by endorsement and specific joint loss payable parties may be named.

Fidelity bond underwriting requires two important considerations. Special attention should be paid to correctly answering application questions pertinent to these considerations.

SEPARATION OF DUTIES

The HOA or COA must institute a separation of financial duties, i.e., the person(s) that make deposits, withdrawals, wire transfers and authorizes/writes checks CANNOT be the same individual that reconciles bank account statements. The questions about this are generally in the "internal controls" section of an application.

ROUTINE CPA INPUT

The HOA or COA applicant should have an independent party (CPA, audit firm, etc.) look at the books annually. This is more important as the requested fidelity amount increases. A fidelity and surety company would like to receive an annual financial statement prepared by a CPA as part of renewal requests or if the initial coverage request is large. If any recommendations are or were made by the auditor, then underwriters will want to understand how the HOA has instituted those recommendations.

To apply for a California HOA idelity bond, we require the following:

• Homeowner's Association Fidelity Bond Application
• Applicant's most current fiscal year end financial statement *Only if fidelity bond amount is in excess of $250,000.
• Loss runs for previous five (5) years. *Only if HOA has carried fidelity coverage.