§ 9904.416-50 - Techniques for application.

9904.416-50 Techniques for application.

(a) Measurement of projected average loss.

(1) For exposure to risk of loss which is covered by the purchase of insurance or by payments to a trusteed fund, the premium or payment, adjusted in accordance with the following criteria, shall represent the projected average loss:

(i) The premium cost applicable to a given policy term shall be assigned pro rata among the cost accounting periods covered by the policy term, except as provided in subdivisions (a)(1) (ii) through (vi) of this subsection. A refund, dividend or additional assessment shall become an adjustment to the pro rata premium costs for the earliest cost accounting period in which the refund or dividend is actually or constructively received or in which the additional assessment is payable.

(ii) Where insurance is purchased specifically for, and directly allocated to, a single final cost objective, the premium need not be prorated among cost accounting periods.

(iii) Any part of a premium or payment to an insurer or trustee, or any part of a dividend or premium refund retained by an insurer or trustee which would be includable as a deposit in published financial statements prepared in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles shall be accounted for as a deposit for the purpose of determining insurance costs.

(iv) Any part of a premium or payment to an insurer or to a trustee, or any part of a dividend or premium refund retained by an insurer, for inclusion in a reserve or fund established and maintained on behalf of the insured or the policyholder or trustor, shall be accounted for as a deposit unless the following conditions are met:

(A) The objectives of the reserve or fund are clearly stated in writing.

(B) Measurement of the amount required for the reserve or fund is actuarially determined and is consistent with the objectives of the reserve or fund.

(C) Payments and additions to the reserve or fund are made in a systematic and consistent manner.

(D) If payments to accomplish the stated objectives of the reserve or fund are made from a source other than the reserve or fund, the payments into the reserve or fund are reduced accordingly.

(v) If an objective of an insurance program is to prefund insurance coverage on retired persons, then, in addition to the requirements imposed by subdivision (a)(1)(iv) of this subsection, the:

(A) Payments must be made to an insurer or trustee to establish and maintain a fund or reserve for that purpose;

(B) Policyholder or trustor must have no right of recapture of the reserve or fund so long as any active or retired participant in the program remains alive, unless the interests of such remaining participants are satisfied through adequate reinsurance or otherwise; and

(C) Amount added to the reserve or fund in any cost accounting period must not be greater than an amount which would be required to apportion the cost of the insurance coverage fairly over the working lives of the active employees in the plan. If a contractor establishes a terminal-funded plan for retired persons or converts from a pay-as-you-go plan to a terminal-funded plan, the actuarial present value of benefits applicable to employees already retired shall be amortized over a period of 15 years.

(vi) The contractor may adopt and consistently follow a practice of determining insurance costs based on the estimated premium and assessments net of estimated refunds and dividends. If this practice is adopted, then any difference between an estimated and actual refund, dividend, or assessment shall become an adjustment to the pro rata net premium costs for the earliest cost accounting period in which the refund or dividend is actually or constructively received or in which the additional assessment is payable.

(2) For exposure to risk of loss which is not covered by the purchase of insurance or by payments to a trusteed fund, the contractor shall follow a program of self-insurance accounting according to the following criteria:

(i) Except as provided in subdivisions (a)(2)(ii) and (iii) of this subsection, actual losses shall not become a part of insurance costs. Instead, the contractor shall make a self-insurance charge for each period for each type of self-insured risk which shall represent the projected average loss for that period. If insurance could be purchased against the self-insured risk, the cost of such insurance may be used as an estimate of the projected average loss; if this method is used, the self-insurance charge plus insurance administration expenses may be equal to, but shall not exceed, the cost of comparable purchased insurance plus the associated insurance administration expenses. However, the contractor's actual loss experience shall be evaluated regularly, and self-insurance charges for subsequent periods shall reflect such experience in the same manner as would purchased insurance. If insurance could not be purchased against the self-insured risk, the amount of the self-insurance charge for each period shall be based on the contractor's experience, relevant industry experience, and anticipated conditions in accordance with accepted actuarial principles.

(ii) Where it is probable that the actual amount of losses which will occur in a cost accounting period will not differ significantly from the projected average loss for that period, the actual amount of losses in that period may be considered to represent the projected average loss for that period in lieu of a self-insurance charge.

(iii) Under self-insurance programs for retired persons, only actual losses shall be considered to represent the projected average loss unless a reserve or fund is established in accordance with 9904.416-50(a)(1)(v).

(iv) The self-insurance charge shall be determined in a manner which will give appropriate recognition to any indemnification agreement which exists between the contracting parties.

(3) In measuring actual losses under subparagraph (a)(2) of this subsection:

(i) The amount of a loss shall be measured by:

(A) The actual cash value of property destroyed,

(B) Amounts paid or accrued to repair damage,

(C) Amounts paid or accrued to estates and beneficiaries, and

(D) Amounts paid or accrued to compensate claimants, including subrogation.

Where the amount of a loss which is represented by a liability to a third party is uncertain, the estimate of the loss shall be the amount which would be includable as an accrued liability in financial statements prepared in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles.

(ii) If a loss has been incurred and the amount of the liability to a claimant is fixed or reasonably certain, but actual payment of the liability will not take place for more than 1 year after the loss is incurred, the amount of the loss to be recognized currently shall be the present value of the future payments, determined by using a discount rate equal to the interest rate as determined by the Secretary of the Treasury pursuant to Public Law 92-41, 85 stat. 97 in effect at the time the loss is recognized. Alternatively, where settlement will consist of a series of payments over an indefinite time period, as in workmen's compensation, the contractor may follow a consistent policy of recognizing only the actual amounts paid in the period of payment.

(4) The contractor may elect to recognize immaterial amounts of self-insured losses or insurance administration expenses as part of other expense categories rather than as “insurance costs.”

(b) Allocation of insurance costs.

(1) Where actual losses are recognized as an estimate of the projected average loss, in accordance with 9904.416-50(a)(2), or where actual loss experience is determined for the purpose of developing self-insurance charges by segment, a loss which is incurred in a given segment shall be identified with that segment. However, if the contractor's home office is, in effect, a reinsurer of its segments against catastrophic losses, a portion of such catastrophic losses shall be allocated to, or identified with, the home office.

(2) Insurance costs shall be allocated on the basis of the factors used to determine the premium, assessment, refund, dividend, or self-insurance charge, except that insurance costs incurred by a segment or allocated to a segment from a home office may be combined with costs of other indirect cost pools if the resultant allocation to each final cost objective is substantially the same as it would have been if separately allocated under this provision.

(3) Insurance administration expenses which are material in relation to total insurance costs shall be allocated on the same basis as the related premium costs or self-insurance charge.

(c) Records. The contractor shall maintain such records as may be necessary to substantiate the amounts of premiums, refunds, dividends, losses, and self-insurance charges, paid or accrued, and the measurement and allocation of insurance costs. Memorandum records may be used to reflect any material differences between insurance costs as determined in accordance with this standard and as includable in financial statements prepared in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles.

[57 FR 14153, Apr. 17, 1992; 57 FR 34168, Aug. 3, 1992]