MetLife 2010 Annual Report Download - page 87

REPORT OF INDEPENDENT REGISTERED PUBLIC ACCOUNTING FIRM
To the Board of Directors and Stockholders of
MetLife, Inc.:
We have audited the internal control over financial reporting of MetLife, Inc. and subsidiaries (the “Company”) as of December 31, 2010,
based on criteria established in Internal Control — Integrated Framework issued by the Committee of Sponsoring Organizations of the
Treadway Commission. As described in Management’s Annual Report on Internal Control Over Financial Reporting, management excluded
from its assessment the internal control over financial reporting at ALICO, acquired on November 1, 2010, as the financial reporting systems
of ALICO have not yet been integrated into the Company’s financial reporting systems and, as such, the Company did not have the practical
ability to perform an assessment of ALICO’s internal control over financial reporting in time for this current year-end. ALICO represents 17% of
total assets and 2% of total revenues of the Company as of and for the year ended December 31, 2010. Accordingly, our audit did not include
the internal control over financial reporting at ALICO. 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, included in the accompanying
Management’s Annual Report on Internal Control Over Financial Reporting. Our responsibility is to express an opinion on 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,
assessing the risk that a material weakness exists, testing and evaluating the design and operating effectiveness of internal control based on
the assessed risk, and performing such other procedures as we considered necessary in the circumstances. We believe that our audit
provides a reasonable basis for our opinion.
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, the Company maintained, in all material respects, effective internal control over financial reporting as of December 31,
2010, 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 of the Company as of and for the year ended December 31, 2010, and our report dated February 24, 2011
expressed an unqualified opinion on those consolidated financial statements.
/s/ DELOITTE & TOUCHE LLP
DELOITTE & TOUCHE LLP
New York, New York
February 24, 2011
84 MetLife, Inc.