This whole surety bond issue was driven by DFS' desire to get out of holding and managing surety bonds, CDs, security or anything else.   They had some internal estimates that this would save them huge amounts of money. (I hope it actually plays out that way!)

In order to maintain the status quo on bonds while the Agent Section completes its ongoing discussion of whether we should eliminate bonds entirely, increase them over a period of time to a more meaningful amount, or something else entirely, our insurers agreed to confirm that each of their agents have the required bond and report that to DFS as part of your appointment. 

Unfortunately, one result of the change is that going forward, all agencies must have a bond.  There is no longer a cash or collateral option.  Mechanically it would have been too hard to split that among multiple insurers, or change when you add or drop an insurer from your mix.

Because the payee on the bond will change, we have to get some new surety bond language approved by OIR.   So I would suggest leaving your CD in place a little longer until the new form of bond is available. 

Alan