UVM's insurance costs for property protection and claims, managed by Risk Management and Safety, are either (1) directly allocated to a specific budget unit (typically when Risk Management and Safety pays for the premium coverage) or (2) pooled for a common-based distribution.
Insurance costs for buildings and their contents, vehicles, and workers' compensation are pooled for a common-based distribution and allocated to the appropriate departmental chartstrings by University Financial Services' Financial Accounting, Costing, and Treasury Services (FACTS), as follows:
- Building and Contents - insurance costs are allocated to the chartstring(s) provided by the receiving departments, based on current building property valuation amounts and property additions/deletions provided by Risk Management & Safety.
- Vehicles - vehicle insurance costs provided by Risk Management & Safety are allocated to the chartstrings provided by the department that owns the vehicle(s) based on the type and age of the vehicle. Vehicles older than 8 years are charged for liability coverage only. FACTS works closely with departments to maintain a current list of active vehicles. All vehicles should have a record in the PeopleSoft Asset Management module and are inventoried on an annual basis. Vehicles acquired or disposed of during the fiscal year are assessed on whether its allocated costs should be prorated based on its use during the year or whether it should be charged for an entire year of cost.
- Worker’s Compensation - Based on a periodic actuarial study, a cash reserve level is adjusted to ensure adequate protection against workers' compensation claims. Risk Management & Safety determines the funding level of the workers' compensation reserve, and FACTS distributes the reserve increase to the University benefit rates based on the payroll bases of the benefit rates. FACTS posts weekly workers' compensation claims against the workers' compensation reserve throughout the year.
To ensure that sufficient time has passed in the fiscal year to allocate costs incurred during the year, the processing of these charges typically occurs in March.