The SmittyShield Field Notes
Editorial notes on property, insurance, surety, and the practical preparation that helps Florida families and businesses move forward with confidence.
Personal protectionThe first solo drive changes the family routine. It should also trigger an insurance conversation. Review the driver, the vehicles and the liability limits before assuming the same policy setup still answers every question.
More from Field Notes
Explore every prior Field Note—from surety indemnity and construction crew evidence through hurricane deductible budgets and later claims and unfinished projects, work errands, payment integrity, and mobile equipment through certificates, interruption clocks, owner cash flow, liability layers, bond pipelines, home values, water paths, inventories, and bond-ready files.
Issue 26 · Business protection
A customer injury and an employee's discrimination complaint can both create legal costs. They do not necessarily call on the same insurance. Review employment practices liability, defense-cost limits and reporting requirements before assuming general liability handles the dispute.
Review the employment questions
Issue 25 · Home & property
The personal-property limit looks large enough to replace a ring. A smaller jewelry limit, the cause of loss or an unscheduled item can change that answer. Review the item and its coverage before assuming the home's policy protects its full value.
Review the jewelry questions
Issue 24 · Business protection
An owner's family and the company can face different financial needs after the same death. Key person life insurance addresses the business's loss, but the beneficiary, consent documents and continuity plan matter as much as the policy amount.
Review the key person questions
Issue 23 · Home & property
The association's letter shows your share of a building expense. It does not establish an insurance payment. Before treating an assessment as a covered loss, trace the cause, the master policy and the loss-assessment protection in your own condo policy.
Review the assessment questions
Issue 22 · Business protection
The lights come on. The cooler does not. A failed motor or damaged electrical system can stop a business without a fire or theft. Separate the equipment repair, spoiled stock and interrupted income before assuming one property limit handles all three.
Review the equipment questions
Issue 21 · Home & property
A rental can become unlivable before you know where the next night's sleep will happen. The landlord's building insurance and your temporary housing costs are different questions. Review the covered-loss requirement, added expenses and limits behind renters' loss-of-use coverage.
Review the temporary-housing questions
Issue 20 · Personal protection
The benefits portal shows a life insurance amount. Your family's need for protection may outlast the job that provides it. Before a career change, find out when group coverage ends and whether portability, conversion or a separate policy can address what comes next.
Review the coverage dates
Issue 19 · Personal protection
An insurance card can identify a policy. It cannot tell you whether the other driver's injury liability coverage will be enough for your recovery. Review your own uninsured motorist limits and the choices behind them before the next trip.
Review the UM choices
Issue 18 · Business protection
A spare room can become a stockroom, a client meeting space or the place where every order gets packed. The address stays residential. The insurance questions change with the work being done there.
Review the home-business questions
Issue 17 · Surety & bonds
The premium gets a bond issued. It does not necessarily transfer a contractor's ultimate loss to the surety. Before the next bid, review who signed the indemnity agreement, what it covers, and when the surety can ask for collateral.
Review the indemnity questions
Issue 16 · Contractor readiness
An invoice, a 1099 label, or an owner's exemption does not settle the workers' compensation question for a construction crew. In Florida, trace the employer, the people doing the work, and the coverage in force before the first day on site.
Review the crew evidence
Issue 15 · Home & property
The percentage looks small. The dollar amount may not be. Translate the percentage into dollars, review Florida’s calendar-year rules, and retain the documented loss file.
Review the deductible amount
Issue 14 · Business protection
The final invoice closes a project, not necessarily its liability exposure. For a claims-made policy, the date of the work, the first claim, and the report to the insurer can all matter. Review the retroactive date and reporting options before changing or ending coverage.
Review the reporting dates
Issue 13 · Contractor readiness
A performance bond answers a contract question. Builders risk addresses a different exposure: physical damage to the unfinished project. Before materials arrive, trace the covered property, insured interests, delay provisions, and the handoff to permanent insurance.
Review the unfinished work
Issue 12 · Business protection
A work errand in an employee's car or a short-term rental can put the business in the claim—even when its own vehicles are insured. Follow the driver, the trip, and the policy wording before assuming the liability is handled.
Follow the work errand
Issue 11 · Business protection
A familiar vendor, a genuine invoice, and one changed bank number can redirect a business payment. Separate the verification decision from the cyber and crime insurance questions.
Review the payment check
Issue 10 · Business protection
A contractor can insure the work vehicle and still have unanswered questions about the tools riding inside it. Follow the equipment from the shop to the jobsite to see which policy is being asked to respond.
Follow the tool route
Issue 09 · Contractor readiness
A certificate can show policies, dates, and limits. It cannot create additional-insured status, primary wording, completed-operations protection, or a cancellation promise that the policy never granted.
Read the endorsement packet
Issue 08 · Business protection
Property insurance can repair walls, equipment, and inventory. Business-income and extra-expense coverage confront a different loss: the revenue clock that keeps running while operations are interrupted.
Trace the interruption clock
Issue 07 · Business protection
For someone whose income depends on showing up, an injury or hospital stay can create two financial problems at once: the cost of care and the cost of keeping life and business moving.
Review the cash-flow layer
Issue 06 · Business protection
A certificate can show a seven-figure limit. A serious claim has no obligation to stop there. The stronger question is what protects the business after the primary layer is exhausted.
Review the liability layers
Issue 05 · Contractor readiness
You cannot schedule the award. You can build the financial and operational runway to accept it when it arrives.
Build the bond pipeline
Issue 04 · Home & property
The real-estate listing prices the address. The mortgage statement prices the debt. Home insurance has to confront the cost of rebuilding the structure.
Compare the three numbers
Issue 03 · Home & property
The water line shows how high it rose. The path it took into the house may matter even more.
Trace the water path
Issue 02 · Home & property
A practical room-by-room method to document belongings before a covered loss makes ordinary details difficult to reconstruct.
Take the house tour
Issue 01 · Surety & bonds
A field guide to bid, performance, and payment bonds—and the bond-ready file contractors can prepare before opportunity arrives.
Read the bonding field noteWhat we write about
Every field note is built to make the next conversation more productive. Requirements still vary, and the current document or policy language always controls.
Prepare clear records and better questions for the protection behind your rooms and belongings.
02Understand the parties, obligations, forms, and preparation behind a bond request.
03Connect operations, contracts, primary liability, and the coverage layers above them.
A question worth asking now
