The Vermont Statutes Online

Title 8: Banking and Insurance

Chapter 111: Fidelity, Surety, and Annuity Companies

• § 4141. Capital of foreign fidelity and surety companies

  A foreign stock fidelity and surety company shall not do business in this State unless it has a paid up and unimpaired capital, exclusive of stockholders’ obligations, of not less than $400,000.00. (Amended 1965, No. 59, § 1, eff. May 12, 1965.)

• § 4142. Repealed. 1967, No. 344 (Adj. Sess.), § 9.

• § 4143. Law governing foreign fidelity, surety, and annuity companies

  The companies specified in section 4141 of this title are governed by and subject to the laws of this State relating to foreign insurance companies and their admission to do business in this State, as applicable. (Amended 2021, No. 105 (Adj. Sess.), § 157, eff. July 1, 2022.)

• § 4144. Repealed. 1993, No. 233 (Adj. Sess.), § 82, eff. June 21, 1994.

• § 4144a. Powers of fidelity companies; other entities; authority to meet bail and bond requirements

  (a) Any entity licensed or authorized to transact fidelity insurance or corporate suretyship business in this State may make bonds or contracts of insurance to guarantee the fidelity of persons holding positions of trust in a private or public capacity.

  (b) Such an entity may act as surety upon the official bond, provide recognizance, or guarantee the undertaking of any person or entity to any governmental entity, court, or any other person or entity, if accepted and approved by the court, magistrate, or obligee or person authorized to approve such bond or contract. However, approval of persons or entities to execute a bond or post bail as required as a condition of release shall be pursuant to 13 V.S.A. § 7554a.

  (c) When such bond is furnished by a public officer or person and accepted for that purpose, the bond shall be deemed full compliance with any requirement for security or surety required to be given by way of bond, recognizance, or other form, such public officer or other person becoming personally bound in the form prescribed by law.

  (d) The entity may act as surety upon a bond or undertaking to any person or entity conditioned upon the performance of any duty or trust, or for the doing or not doing of anything in such bond or undertaking specified; it shall indemnify against loss any persons who are responsible as sureties. (Added 1993, No. 233 (Adj. Sess.), § 81, eff. June 21, 1994.)

• § 4145. Fidelity companies may act as sole surety

  Where by law two or more sureties are required upon an obligation that a fidelity insurance company is authorized to insure, the fidelity insurance company may act as sole surety upon the obligation and may be accepted as such by the court or other person authorized to approve the sufficiency of the bond or undertaking. Any State law requiring sureties on bonds to be residents of this State shall not be construed to forbid the acceptance of a qualified foreign company as joint and sole surety upon any such bond. (Amended 2021, No. 105 (Adj. Sess.), § 158, eff. July 1, 2022.)

• § 4146. Limit of liability

  A foreign fidelity and surety company shall not incur in behalf or on account of any one person, partnership, association, or corporation a liability for an amount larger than one-tenth of its total admitted assets, after deducting from such liability amounts reinsured in other companies authorized to do business in this State, unless it shall be secured from loss thereon beyond that amount by suitable and sufficient collateral agreements of indemnity, by deposits with it in pledge, or conveyance to it in trust for its protection, of property equal in value to the excess of its liability over such limit, or, in case such liability is incurred in behalf or on account of a fiduciary holding property in a trust capacity, by such deposit or other disposition of a suitable and sufficient portion of the estate so held, that no further sale, mortgage, pledge, or other disposition can be made thereof without such company’s approval except by the decree of a court having proper jurisdiction.

• § 4147. Fiduciaries may secure surety from loss

  A person, partnership, association, or corporation holding property for the benefit of another, except when acting under wills allowed or trusts created before November 27, 1894, may make such covenants with the sureties upon his or her official bond as will enable such fiduciary to secure such sureties from loss in any manner provided by section 4145 of this title. However, if such fiduciary was appointed by the decree of any court within this State, the approval of such court shall first be obtained to such covenant.

• § 4148. Copy of agreement to be filed and recorded

  A copy of such covenant, duly acknowledged in the manner required for the acknowledgment of deeds of real estate, may be filed and recorded as follows: in the office of the clerk or register of the court in which such fiduciary obtained his or her appointment; or if not appointed by decree of the court, in the manner provided by law for the record of deeds of real estate, if such covenant concerns real estate, or mortgages of personal property, if such covenant concerns personal property. Such record shall be notice to and binding on all persons.

• § 4149. Allowance of premium against estate

  Money paid to a company duly organized and authorized to act in this State in guaranteeing the fidelity of persons and in acting as surety on bonds, or to a person for acting as surety on an official bond given to the Judge of Probate, may be allowed, in his or her discretion, as a charge against the estate in which such bond is required.