How to leverage bond insurance to protect you

[Adam Pasternack]

I was recently reading up on what it means to be bonded.  Facinated by the idea that contractors and the like get insurance to protect those who hire them had me thinking how best can we leverage that safty and protection that comes from that policy.

Any insight and/or advice here?  What exactly does a bond policy a contractor holds cover?  Deficient work?  Increases to the estimate due to newly discovered complexities?  Bad work?  Late work?

Also, what is the process of getting that money, making a claim.  Who puts it in, I can imagine that the contractor and the person who hired them will not always be on the same page if things went south.

Thanks for your thoughts~!