The AIA Surety team recently attended the Florida Bail Agents Association summer meeting in Orlando. As part of our sponsorship of the event, we conducted a brief survey of the state of bail in Florida. We would like to thank all the agents in attendance who took our survey. The results were extremely positive. The survey consisted of the following nine questions:
- On a scale of 1-5 with 5 being the healthiest, how would you rate the overall health of the bail profession through the first 6 months of the year?
- In your opinion, has 2025 been a good year for your bail bond business?
- Do you expect the remaining 6 months of 2025 to be a good year for your bail bond business?
- On a scale of 1-5 with 5 being the most confident and 1 being the least confident, how confident are you about the bail profession going forward for the rest of 2025?
- Which one of the following things would be the most important thing you would like to see from your surety in 2025?
- Better service (transfer bonds, large bonds
- Better technology offerings
- More assistance in fighting bail reform
- More help with growing my business
- Other
- On a scale of 1-5 with 5 being the most satisfied, how satisfied are you with your current surety when it comes to providing your agency with new and better tools to grow your business?
- On a scale of 1-5 with 5 being the most satisfied, how satisfied are you with your current surety when it comes to their role in defending and promoting the bail industry?
- Did you switch sureties in 2025?
- Do you plan on switching sureties this year?
You might notice that these are the same questions that we have asked in previous surveys. The big difference is that those other surveys focused more on the national bail market as opposed to just the Florida bail market. What is interesting is that the answers varied from our national survey quite a bit. Don’t get us wrong. This isn’t a bad thing. In fact, for bail agents in Florida, it is a great thing as the tone of all the responses we received was absolutely positive and upbeat.
Below is a summary of the results.
- When asked about the health of the bail industry in Florida for the first 6 months of the year, agents responded very positively, ranking the industry 4.7 out of 5. We think much of this is due to the great job that FBAA has done in not only passing great pro-bail legislation in Florida but also in how they have prevented bail reform legislation.
- 95% of agents said that 2025 has been a good year for their business and 100% of agents who responded anticipate the rest of the year to be strong. There is definitely a more positive vibe in the Florida bail market than we found to be nationally.
- 100% of the agents said that they see the bail industry remaining strong for the foreseeable future.
- When asked about what they felt the one thing was that their surety could be doing better for them, the answers varied.
- 20% of respondents wanted better service around large bonds and transfer bonds.
- 64% wanted better technology solutions and offerings
- 16% wanted more help growing their business
- 0% wanted more help fighting bail reform
The interesting thing about these responses was that no one selected the option of “more help fighting bail reform.” We can assume that is because FBAA does a fantastic job working with agents and sureties to ensure a strong future for bail. Additionally, we found the technology response interesting. It is hard to argue that access to reliable and effective technology has become essential for agents. It always ranks as one of the most important needs in our surveys. That is why years ago, AIA Surety committed itself to developing its own proprietary bail management software and providing it to our agents for free. It has been a real benefit and differentiator for us.
- Agents gave their surety a ranking of 4.2 when asked whether their surety provided them with new and better tools to grow their business. We also find this result interesting as it really tells us what agents are thinking regarding the role of their surety. How many sureties focus on helping agents be more successful? How many sureties focus on giving their agents tools to grow their business? At AIA Surety, we know that our success is dependent on our agent’s success, so whatever we can do to make them better at what they do, we will do it. We are confident that we are the only surety that approaches the business in this way.
- Agents gave their surety a whopping ranking of 5.0 when it comes to protecting and defending the bail industry. As we mentioned earlier, I think this is in large part to the great job FBAA does with their lobbyist and in bringing together agents and sureties to help fight bail reform.
- None of the agents that participated in the survey had switched sureties in 2025 and none had plans to move for the rest of the year.
As always, we appreciate all the agents that took the time to scan our QR code at the FBAA summer conference and take our survey. The results of these types of surveys are not only interesting, but they are extremely informative as they provide us guidance on what is important for agents and how we as a surety can provide more relevant and effective tools.