Insurance
trust accounting is premium accounting. It creates accurate accounting records
of premium trust transactions and generates trust financial solvency statements.
Agency owners can monitor and control trust financial solvency without help
from accountants or CPAs. Conscious of the punitive consequences of fiduciary
violations, agency owners will feel now safe to run fiduciary-compliant sales
and service insurance businesses.
Unlike
business accounting, insurance trust accounting offers agency owners for the
first time a commission income accounting. Agencies will no longer transfer sales
commissions to the operating account based on what they need but rather on what
they earn; return premiums will no longer show up in the ledger as “return
merchandise” and distort the agency’s financial statements.
Fiduciary Accounting
Trust
accounting is fiduciary accounting. Anyone involved in the management of trust
funds becomes a “fiduciary” or legal “custodian” of the property entrusted to
him/her for financial management. P&C insurance agencies are authorized by
insurance companies to receive and maintain transacted premiums in agency-owned
trust bank accounts until they are remitted. Happy to have the sale commission
available upon the receipt of premiums, agencies agreed to submit themselves to
fiduciary regulations, such as: separation of premiums from business operating
funds, maintain accurate records and report financial solvency to auditors, whenever
necessary. Agencies signed Company-Agency Agreements to officially accept fiduciary
positions.
Unlike an attorney’s
trust account, insurance trust account is much more dynamic and transaction-intensive.
Premium receivable and payable transactions are complex and occur daily. Return
premiums must be processed and refunded relatively quickly, either in cash or
by credit. They may be also offset from one policy to another. Financial
solvency must be reported for each policy, each insurance company and the
entire trust account. The beneficiaries of the trust account cash balance must
be also reported.
Fiduciary Mandates
Trust
accounting has been available to users only during the past several years but due
to limited advertising, few agencies are using it. Without trust accounting and
training, agencies cannot meet Insurance Code fiduciary mandates. One third of
P&C agencies in California operates out of trust exposing agency owners to
a loss of business license and/or legal prosecution for theft. Violations of
fiduciary duty are not consistently audited by the Dept of Insurance and/or
insurance companies, which would rather see agencies sell more policies rather
than check on agency fiduciary performance. Insurance consultants pay little or
no attention to fiduciary compliance as they may not fully understand the
difference between business accounting and trust accounting. Very few CPAs have
publicly commented on agency fiduciary compliance requirements.
Core Business
Insurance
agencies’ core business is to sell and service insurance products. The agency’s
back office supports its core business by servicing policies and performing
general business accounting. Many agencies use the “direct bill” business
model. All transacted premiums are received by insurance companies which
process sales commissions and pay them after generally 60 days. Most P&C agencies,
however, use the “agency bill” business model, whereby the agency receives
transacted premiums and agree to submit itself to fiduciary regulations. Agency-Bill
agencies set up trust bank accounts and agree to manage premium funds in
accordance with fiduciary mandates.
Financial Management
Managing tens or hundreds of million dollars every year in
and out of the trust account, and reporting trust financial solvency is, by any
standard, not an easy task. It requires knowledge and financial tools.
Automation of trust account transactions is critical. Most small and medium
size agencies have no one in their staff with knowledge and training to
practice trust accounting. Agency bookkeepers receive premium payment checks,
make bank deposits, and write premium remittance checks to insurance companies.
Premium invoices are generally CSR’s (Account Manager’s) job. No one in the
agency oversees the trust account management.
The receivables accounting routine is not trust-specific.
Although payments are deposited in the trust bank account, invoice accounting model
is imported from general business accounting. The invoice commission is
recorded in the ledger as agency income rather than trust liability.
Return premiums are wrongly recorded as negative receivables. Net
premium vouchers are manually processed. The agency sales commission is not
collected in a separate ledger account. As practiced today, trust accounting is
nothing but an extension of agency general business accounting. This explains why trust balance sheets or
statements of trust cash balance beneficiaries are unavailable to agency
managers. As an extension of the agency business accounting, the trust
accounting practice is indeed a non-core business.
New Technology
With the advent of new technology, trust account premium and
return premium transactions are now fully automated. A new accounting logic is employed to generate
trust financial solvency reports. Balance Sheets and Statements of Trust Funds Beneficiaries
are standard in trust accounting. Agency owners can monitor and control by
themselves the trust account operation as mandated by law. Trust accounting has
nothing to do with the agency’s sales or service functions. Its integration in
the agency business is the result of agency’s conscious decision to assume
fiduciary responsibilities. Trust accounting represents about 85% of the agency
accounting effort. Only 15% covers general accounting transactions.
Conclusion
In current modern financial management environment trust
accounting becomes an agency’s stand-alone operation organized to manage
transacted premiums and supply the agency commission income. Is the trust
account operation an agency’s core business? We emphatically say it must be
because agencies have opted to become fiduciary-based enterprises functioning alongside
the sale and service core business. We suggest that, by accepting fiduciary
responsibilities, insurance agencies committed to perform financial duties like
any other financial institution, although much more involved. Insurance
companies should consider providing agencies financial compensation for this very
specialized work.
For additional information on the new
trust accounting technology and the US patent obtained in 2017 to protect it, send
email to chris@paulmargroup.com
Chris Marinescu, Inventor and President at
Paulmar Group LLC
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