It’s Pig Iron Beneath Water!

This put up is a part of a sequence sponsored by Outdated Republic Surety.

To a few of my fellow insurance coverage professionals, the surety enterprise has at all times had an charisma about it. Maybe it’s the unique language we use referring to “Obligee’s” and “Principals”. Perhaps it’s the surety underwriter’s potential to shortly unlock the secrets and techniques of a shopper’s monetary assertion and translate a web page of numbers to feedback of reward or questions of concern.

It’s true that straightforward, clearer language can break down obstacles and make writing surety enterprise extra snug for some. Lately I’ve seen a motion in altering utility and bond type language to seek advice from the Obligee merely because the “Proprietor” and change the phrase principal with “Contractor”. We have to eschew obfuscation. I imply, keep away from overly sophisticated phrases.

Considered one of my favourite idioms used within the surety enterprise got here immediately from the insurance coverage business. We are going to generally obtain a submission the place the agent has written clearly on the high of the submission “PIUW“. This stands for Pig Iron Beneath Water. This outdated part comes from the early days of fireside insurance coverage. Pig Iron is an intermediate product of the iron business, often known as crude iron. When Iron ingots are made (these are used to make Ductile Iron pipe, as an example) they break off molten items of the iron off the runner (referred to as the sow) into water to chill. The cooling ingots type right into a form that appears like a child pig, thus the title pig iron. The purpose of the assertion is that Iron is taken into account comparatively inflammable (It melts at 1200 levels Celsius). Now put iron below water, and when it comes to a fireplace danger, you might have concerning the most secure danger there’s. So pig iron below water is a strategy to signify a certain factor. A protected guess. It’s cash within the financial institution. It’s the absence of danger.

In fact one particular person’s pig iron below water might be one other particular person’s oily rags within the nook on a scorching day. That is why we’ve underwriters to make that willpower.

We imagine surety must be accessible to everybody and we’re prepared that can assist you translate the subsequent alternative into enterprise fortune. So if in case you have a development shopper that wants a efficiency and fee bond or if in case you have business surety want or query, contact us and we are going to enable you together with your surety wants.

This weblog was initially printed on the Outdated Republic Surety web site. It’s reproduced right here with permission.