Accessing the Blanket Bond Disb. Feature

From the top Main Menu toolbar (File Menu), select ‘Case Administration’ > ‘Blanket Bond Disb.’

Blanket Bond Disbursement Fields

Trustee – Select the Trustee number for which the blanket bond disbursement will be calculated.

Reverse – Click on the ‘Reverse’ button if you “Post Checks” in error and want to generate a reversing entry on the ledger.

Balance to Use for Disbursement Calculations – Select either ‘Use Ledger Balance’ or ‘Use Bank Balance’ for payment calculation.

Premium Type – Select the type of premium you pay, either pro-rated or flat-fee.

• Pro-rated means the bond premium amount is already set and will be allocated among all of the cases with funds.
• Flat-fee means the bond premium will be calculated based on a percentage (usually determined by the UST) of the funds held for each case.

Note:  If a case only has money in a Money Market account, the Bond Payment Report will print a message, “Funds transfer required: DDA #xxxxxx balance would be $xxxxx.”  If the message appears, you must transfer funds into the DDA to cover the bond payment.

Include TDR Cases – Check this box if you want to disburse funds from cases for which final distribution has occurred.

Note:  This would be very rare (e.g., if money was returned to the estate after the case was closed).

Include TFR Cases – Check this box if you want to disburse funds from cases for which a Final Report has been filed.

Note – This would also be very rare (e.g., finding an asset and reopening a case after the case was closed).

Premium Amount – Enter the blanket bond premium amount due.  This field is available when you select ‘pro-rated’ as the Premium Type.

Minimum Balance – Enter the amount to be considered the minimum balance into the ‘Minimum Balance’ field.  The minimum balance feature will exclude all of the cases that do not meet the amount entered.

Calculate @ – This field is available when you select ‘flat-fee’ as the Premium Type.  Enter the dollar amount to be used in the ‘flat-fee’ ratio (e.g., “$1.00 per $500.00”).

Per $ – This field is available when you select ‘flat-fee’ as the Premium Type.  Enter a dollar amount to be used in the ‘flat-fee’ ratio (e.g., “$1.00 per $500.00”).

Preview – Click on the ‘Preview’ button to display on screen a Bond Payment Report that shows the proposed blanket bond disbursement information per case.

Print – Click on the ‘Print’ button to print a Bond Payment Report that shows the proposed blanket bond disbursement information per case.

Continue

After you have printed or previewed the Bond Payment Report, click on ‘Continue’ to post (write) checks to the ledger.  The Trustee Bond screen will appear.  Trustee Suite will recalculate the blanket bond disbursement before posting the checks.

Payee:  Select a Payee from the pull-down list of ‘Repetitive Payees’ for the bond payment checks (usually the insurance company or the trustee’s “recovery account”).  If the payee is not listed, you must add it in the Repetitive Payee List screen (shown below) accessed via the top Main Menu toolbar (File Menu) (‘Tables’ > ‘Repetitive Payees’).

Ledger Category:  Select the Category ‘2300-00 Bond Payments’ from the combo box drop-down menu.

Additional Check Description:  Enter additional information (e.g., bond number) to the end of the check description area.

Post Checks:  Click on this button to post checks payable to the above specified Payee from each case.  This does not print the checks.

Back:  Click on this button to return to the previous page.

Close:  Click on this button to close the entire operation.

Print Bond Premium Checks

After posting checks, click on ‘Reports’ from the top Main Menu toolbar (File Menu) and select ‘Print Checks’ to print checks (‘Reports’ > ‘Print Checks’).