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You're covered. Here's exactly what happens next.
Your coverage is active. Paper is moving. This page is the map of your first thirty days — what we handle, what needs you, and roughly when.
While you're here — things worth a five-minute conversation
Cyber Surety Employee Benefits Workers' Comp General LiabilityStep one
The timeline
Nobody enjoys wondering whether something is supposed to have happened yet. Here is the order it actually happens in.
You're bound, and nothing is on fire.
Coverage is active as of the effective date on your binder. If a certificate holder needs proof today, ask us today — we don't need the full policy in hand to issue one.
Paper arrives. Not all of it is ours.
Your binder and invoice come from us. The actual policy comes from the carrier, usually within two to four weeks, sometimes by mail, sometimes by portal, occasionally by both because insurance. Nothing is wrong if the carrier document is slower than ours.
Signature pages. The short list, we promise.
Depending on your lines: the signed application, a TRIA terrorism election, an uninsured/underinsured motorist rejection if you have autos, and a workers' comp waiver of subrogation form if a contract requires one. We flag which ones are actually required and which ones are just the carrier being thorough.
Tell us who to call.
This is the one thing on this page we genuinely need from you, and it takes about ninety seconds. The form is right below. It's also what opens your Client Center access.
Your prior carrier finds out.
If you moved a policy to us mid-term, we handle the broker of record letter or the cancellation notice. You do not need to call your old agent, and you do not need to have an awkward conversation. If you'd rather make that call yourself, tell us and we'll hold off.
The first invoice, or the finance schedule.
Either the carrier direct-bills you, or you're on a premium finance agreement with a down payment and monthly installments. You'll know which before it shows up. More on billing below — including the audit conversation, which is the part commercial clients get surprised by.
The one thing we need
Your contacts — and why we're particular about this
Certificates of insurance almost never get requested on a calm Tuesday. They get requested by a general contractor who won't let your crew on site, by a landlord holding a lease, or by a client's procurement desk with a deadline that was yesterday.
When that call comes in, the difference between issuing a certificate in ten minutes and issuing it in two days is whether we already know who at your company is allowed to ask for one. If we don't, we have to chase somebody down to confirm — and that somebody is usually in a meeting.
So: name a primary contact, name a backup, and tell us who's authorized to request certificates. That's it. Doing it now means we never have to do it under pressure.
It also opens your Client Center. Your designated primary contact gets credentials for the 4J Client Center — policy documents, certificate requests, ID cards and billing in one place, without emailing anyone. We provision it from this form, so the name you put here is the login we set up.
Designate your primary contact
Day to day
Certificates of insurance
You will need these more than any other document we produce, so here is how to make them fast.
What to send us
Give us the exact certificate holder name and address as the requesting party wrote it — not as you'd write it. A holder named "ABC Construction Group, LP" will reject a certificate made out to "ABC Construction." We are not being fussy; their compliance software is.
The three questions that slow everything down
Before you forward us a request, check whether the contract asks for additional insured status, a waiver of subrogation, or primary and non-contributory wording. Each one is an endorsement on your policy, not a checkbox on the certificate. If your policy doesn't carry it, we can't certify it — but we can usually get it added. Just not in the twenty minutes before your crew is supposed to be on site.
If you're not sure, send us the contract page. Reading those clauses is genuinely the job.
How long it takes
A standard certificate against coverage you already have: same business day, usually within the hour. One that needs a new endorsement: one to three business days, because the carrier has to issue it. One that needs coverage you don't currently carry: that's a conversation, and we'd rather have it before you sign the contract than after.
The part people get surprised by
Billing, and the audit nobody warns you about
How you'll pay
Either the carrier bills you directly, or you're financing the premium — a down payment, then monthly installments through a premium finance company. Direct bill is simpler. Financing preserves cash. Neither is a trap. If a finance agreement is in play, you signed one, and we'll walk you through the schedule.
Now the part that matters
General liability and workers' compensation policies are auditable. The premium you paid at the start of the term is an estimate, based on projected payroll or projected sales. At the end of the policy year, the carrier checks what actually happened and adjusts.
Grow more than you projected, and you get an additional premium bill. Grow less, and you get money back. Neither one should be a surprise, and it usually only is because nobody explained the mechanic on day one.
What to keep, starting now
Payroll records by class of work, not just total payroll. Certificates from every subcontractor you hire, kept for the whole term. Gross sales figures if your GL rates on receipts. Job cost records if you're in construction.
Uninsured subcontractors are the single most common reason a Texas contractor's audit comes back ugly — if a sub can't produce a certificate, the auditor can charge their payroll to you. Collecting those certificates as you go costs nothing. Reconstructing them eleven months later costs a great deal.
We'll reach out before your audit, not after. Roughly sixty days ahead of your policy anniversary, your primary contact hears from us about what the auditor will ask for. That's another reason the form above matters.
Welcome to 4J
And when you'd rather just talk to somebody
There is no ticket queue here and no 1-800 number that routes you to a different state. You have a broker, and it's the same one every time.
We're glad you're here, and we'll try very hard to be boring in all the ways insurance should be.