Financial Assurances

 

Overview

Financial Assurances are the mechanisms used to demonstrate that the funds are available to meet various costs that may be incurred as part of an environmental project, permit, etc. Financial assurances serve as collateral and ensure that there is funding available if environmental remediation, mitigation, or other clean-up of a site is needed.

Financial assurance is often required in the event that an environmental activity may require a costly closure, clean-up effort, or injury coverage. Environmental agencies often need to evaluate and verify that adequate funding exists as part of the permitting process.

For a given financial assurance need, the available funding is broken down into one or more Cost Estimates that minimum amount required for specific activities that may need to be paid for.

A Financial Assurance record can be added to either a Permit or Compliance Action. Financial assurance records can also be added directly to a site if enabled in system configuration settings.

Financial Assurances

A Financial Assurance record can have one or more Financial Instruments associated with it. A financial instrument is a form of collateral in the form of a surety bond, certificate of deposit, corporate guarantee, letter of credit, deposit account, insurance policy, or other form of funding that can be drawn upon in the event it is needed.

Each financial instrument may allocate a portion of the available funds to the various Cost Estimates described previously. These portions are known as financial responsibility Coverage Amounts.

Financial Assurances will default as Liability or Non-Liability based on program, cost-estimate type, and instrument type.

Creating a Financial Assurance Record

A Financial Assurance record can be added to a Permit or Compliance Action, or directly to a Site, if the system is configured to allow it.

Adding a Financial Assurance Record to a Permit or Compliance Action

To Create a Financial Assurance record on either a Permit or Compliance Action, navigate to the Financial Assurances Tab of the correlating record:

 

Click Add Assurance and input fields as applicable:

If you do not see the “Financial Assurances” tab on an expected permit, navigate to Admin > Lookups > Permit Categories. Find the applicable permit type for the related Program Area, scroll down to Other Settings, and click the checkbox for Show Financial Assurances Tab.

Adding a Financial Assurance Record Directly to a Site

If the software has been configured to allow it, a financial Assurance record can get added directly to a site by clicking the Add Financial Assurance button at the top of the Site Financial Assurance List.

The button will appear if the current user belongs to a security group that contains the “Financial Assurance - Manager” role.