Lifetime Fitness 2006 Annual Report Download - page 69

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REPORT OF INDEPENDENT REGISTERED PUBLIC ACCOUNTING FIRM
To the Board of Directors and Stockholders of
Life Time Fitness, Inc.:
We have audited management's assessment, included in the accompanying Management’s Annual Report on
Internal Control Over Financial Reporting, that Life Time Fitness, Inc. (a Minnesota corporation) and subsidiaries
(the "Company") maintained effective internal control over financial reporting as of December 31, 2006, based on
criteria established in Internal Control—Integrated Framework issued by the Committee of Sponsoring
Organizations of the Treadway Commission. The Company's management is responsible for maintaining effective
internal control over financial reporting and for its assessment of the effectiveness of internal control over financial
reporting. Our responsibility is to express an opinion on management's assessment and an opinion on the
effectiveness of the Company's internal control over financial reporting based on our audit.
We conducted our audit in accordance with the standards of the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board
(United States). Those standards require that we plan and perform the audit to obtain reasonable assurance about
whether effective internal control over financial reporting was maintained in all material respects. Our audit
included obtaining an understanding of internal control over financial reporting, evaluating management's
assessment, testing and evaluating the design and operating effectiveness of internal control, and performing such
other procedures as we considered necessary in the circumstances. We believe that our audit provides a reasonable
basis for our opinions.
A company's internal control over financial reporting is a process designed by, or under the supervision of, the
company's principal executive and principal financial officers, or persons performing similar functions, and effected
by the company's board of directors, management, and other personnel to provide reasonable assurance regarding
the reliability of financial reporting and the preparation of financial statements for external purposes in accordance
with generally accepted accounting principles. A company's internal control over financial reporting includes those
policies and procedures that (1) pertain to the maintenance of records that, in reasonable detail, accurately and fairly
reflect the transactions and dispositions of the assets of the company; (2) provide reasonable assurance that
transactions are recorded as necessary to permit preparation of financial statements in accordance with generally
accepted accounting principles, and that receipts and expenditures of the company are being made only in
accordance with authorizations of management and directors of the company; and (3) provide reasonable assurance
regarding prevention or timely detection of unauthorized acquisition, use, or disposition of the company's assets that
could have a material effect on the financial statements.
Because of the inherent limitations of internal control over financial reporting, including the possibility of collusion
or improper management override of controls, material misstatements due to error or fraud may not be prevented or
detected on a timely basis. Also, projections of any evaluation of the effectiveness of the internal control over
financial reporting to future periods are subject to the risk that the controls may become inadequate because of
changes in conditions, or that the degree of compliance with the policies or procedures may deteriorate.
In our opinion, management's assessment that the Company maintained effective internal control over financial
reporting as of December 31, 2006, is fairly stated, in all material respects, based on the criteria established in
Internal Control—Integrated Framework issued by the Committee of Sponsoring Organizations of the Treadway
Commission. Also in our opinion, the Company maintained, in all material respects, effective internal control over
financial reporting as of December 31, 2006, based on the criteria established in Internal Control—Integrated
Framework issued by the Committee of Sponsoring Organizations of the Treadway Commission.
We have also audited, in accordance with the standards of the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (United
States), the consolidated financial statements as of and for the year ended December 31, 2006 of the Company, and
our report dated February 26, 2007 expressed an unqualified opinion on those consolidated financial statements and
included an explanatory paragraph regarding the Company’s change in the method of accounting for share-based
compensation in 2006 as described in Note 2.
/s/ DELOITTE & TOUCHE LLP
Minneapolis, Minnesota
February 26, 2007