Trade Receivables Protection
Protects your entire receivables book when a customer can't pay.
This is an estimate, not a bound policy — a licensed VAB producer confirms final terms before coverage starts. Sgt. Savings can answer questions but can't quote, bind, or guarantee coverage.
Trade Receivables Protection reimburses a set percentage of your loss when a customer becomes insolvent or falls into prolonged non-payment on money it owes you, covering your whole book of trade receivables rather than a single hand-picked account. It sits above a retention you carry yourself and after a waiting period, so it's built for genuine, sustained non-payment — not routine late invoices. This is credit protection on your customers' ability to pay, not a broader financial guarantee.
Who This Is Really For
The ideal buyer.
This buyer is typically a wholesaler, distributor, or manufacturer that extends open credit terms to a real book of business customers rather than requiring payment up front, and who has either already been burned once by a customer insolvency or is being pushed toward receivables protection by a lender or investor who wants to see the balance sheet protected. They tend to have real customer concentration — a handful of larger buyers make up a meaningful share of revenue — which is exactly what makes one customer's failure a genuine threat rather than a rounding error. This buyer has usually already tried informal risk management (credit checks, tightening payment terms, requiring deposits from newer customers) and found it doesn't scale across a growing customer book the way a whole-portfolio insurance structure does. They're drawn to this specific product over a narrower single-buyer credit policy because covering the whole book, rather than cherry-picking the riskiest accounts, is what keeps the pricing reasonable in the first place.
- A wholesaler or distributor extending open credit terms to a large book of business customers
- A manufacturer with significant customer concentration where one major buyer's failure would be a serious hit
- A company selling into new or higher-risk markets where customer creditworthiness is harder to verify
- A CFO who wants receivables protection as a lender or investor increasingly expects to see it
- A business that's already been burned once by a customer insolvency and doesn't want a repeat
What It Covers
Coverage, broken down.
Whole-book receivables protection
Covers your entire scheduled book of trade receivables rather than a single account, reimbursing a set percentage of ascertained loss from customer insolvency or prolonged non-payment.
Retention and waiting period structure
You carry a retention (a 'first loss' amount) and the loss has to persist through a waiting period before it's payable — this keeps the coverage focused on real, sustained non-payment.
Individually scheduled buyers and limits
Each buyer (and, for international sales, each country) carries its own credit limit on a schedule, so your protection is sized to the actual customers and markets you sell into.
Illustrative Scenario — How This Coverage Responds
Illustrative scenario — a major customer goes insolvent
Picture a distributor that sells to dozens of business customers on open credit terms. One of its larger customers files for insolvency owing a substantial invoice balance. After the waiting period and the distributor's own retention are applied, the loss is submitted under its trade receivables coverage. The insurer reviews the ascertained loss against the credit limit scheduled for that buyer and reimburses the covered percentage of the loss that falls within that scheduled limit.
Illustrative example for education only — not a claim outcome or a promise of payment. Every claim depends on the actual policy issued and its terms.
More Than One Way In
More scenarios.
Real coverage doesn't fit one story. Here's who else this shows up for.
The lender-required condition
A distributor seeking a larger line of credit is told by its lender that receivables protection on its trade book is a condition of the expanded facility, since the lender is effectively lending against those receivables. The distributor schedules its buyer book and secures the coverage as part of closing the larger credit line.
The new-market expansion
A manufacturer begins selling into a new geographic market where it has less history verifying customer creditworthiness, and schedules those new buyers under its trade receivables coverage with individually set credit limits rather than extending open terms on faith alone.
The customer concentration wake-up call
A company reviews its revenue mix and realizes one customer now represents a large enough share of receivables that its failure would be a serious hit to cash flow. Rather than cut that customer's credit terms and risk the relationship, the company adds whole-book receivables protection scheduled around its actual customer concentration.
Know The Gaps
What this doesn't cover.
Every policy has limits. Knowing them before you buy is how you avoid a denied claim later.
Your own contract breach or fraud
This protects against your customer's inability to pay — not a dispute where you failed to deliver as promised. Keep your own contract performance clean; that's on you, not the policy.
Related-party or affiliate buyers
Sales to your own affiliated companies aren't a covered exposure here — this is built for arm's-length trade credit risk with independent customers.
Political risk events — expropriation, war, currency inconvertibility
If you sell internationally into politically unstable markets, that's a different risk category from ordinary buyer credit risk — ask your advisor whether you need dedicated political risk coverage too.
Disputed or contested debts
If your customer disputes owing the money at all, that's treated differently from a straightforward insolvency or non-payment — resolve genuine commercial disputes before they become a claim.
Currency fluctuation losses
A loss driven by exchange-rate movement rather than the buyer's actual failure to pay isn't what this covers — that's a treasury/hedging conversation, not a credit insurance one.
Behind The Quote
What goes into the decision.
What actually moves your price and your approval — no black box.
Customer mix and concentration
Underwriting reviews your buyer book to understand how concentrated your receivables risk is — a book with one or two dominant customers is scoped differently than a broadly diversified one, and each buyer's individual credit limit gets set on the schedule accordingly.
Retention (first-loss amount) and waiting period
You carry a retention and a defined waiting period before a loss is payable, both sized to your receivables volume and risk appetite — a higher retention generally keeps premium lower while still protecting the balance sheet from the losses that matter.
Domestic vs. international customer mix
International buyers and the countries they're in are scheduled individually with their own credit limits, since country-level risk factors into how those buyers are underwritten separately from domestic accounts.
Your own credit and collections practices
Underwriting looks at how you extend and manage credit terms today — consistent credit checks, defined payment terms, and a real collections process signal lower risk than open-ended, undocumented terms.
Let's get you covered.
Tell us what you need on Trade Receivables Protection — a licensed VAB advisor follows up personally. No bots, no runaround.
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Availability
Available for domestic and international customers, with each buyer and country scheduled individually — standard state restrictions apply to the domestic side of your coverage.
Questions, answered straight
No jargon on trade receivables protection — just what you're actually asking.
This product is built around your whole receivables book rather than cherry-picked accounts — that's what lets us price it as a spread of risk instead of insuring only your worst customers. Ask your advisor if a more limited structure fits your situation better.
It's non-payment that persists past a defined waiting period rather than a routine late invoice — the specifics are set out in your schedule. A customer that's 15 days late paying isn't the trigger; sustained failure to pay is.
It's set based on your receivables volume, customer mix, and risk appetite — high enough to keep coverage priced reasonably, low enough to actually protect your balance sheet from a real loss.
It can — international buyers and their countries are scheduled individually with their own credit limits, separate from domestic buyers.
A genuine commercial dispute over whether the debt is owed is handled differently than insolvency or straightforward non-payment — talk to your advisor early if a dispute is brewing so you understand where it stands relative to your coverage.
Beyond This Coverage
What people in your situation also need.
Business Loans
Receivables protection is often the missing piece a lender wants before extending a larger credit facility against your trade book — we can have both conversations together.
ExploreSBA Loans
Growing distributors and manufacturers scaling into new markets often pair receivables protection with financing for that growth.
ExploreBusiness Banking
Centralizing cash flow management alongside receivables protection gives a fuller picture of the risk sitting on your balance sheet.
ExploreRelated Coverage
Coverage people pair with this.
Trade Disruption Protection
Covers lost income when something outside your walls breaks your supply chain.
Learn moreUnemployment Benefit Cost Protection
Caps your exposure when you self-fund unemployment benefits instead of paying state contributions.
Learn moreTuition Refund Protection
Reimburses a school for tuition when a student has to withdraw mid-term.
Learn moreReady to talk it through?
Get a quote in minutes, or ask Sgt. Savings a straight question first — no pressure, no runaround.
Insurance products described on this page are marketed by The Veteran Alliance, a licensed insurance producer, and underwritten by one or more separately licensed insurance companies, which may include Corgi Insurance Company and its affiliates. The insurer that actually underwrites your policy, its licensing status in your state, and any state-required notices will be identified in your quote and policy documents. Coverage, limits, eligibility, and pricing are determined by the underwriting insurer, may vary by state, and may change. Nothing on this page is a quote, an offer of insurance, a binder, or a guarantee of coverage — coverage takes effect only when a policy is issued.