The Hartford 2008 Annual Report Download - page 336

Table of Contents
REPORT OF INDEPENDENT REGISTERED PUBLIC ACCOUNTING FIRM
To the Board of Directors and Stockholders of
The Hartford Financial Services Group, Inc.
Hartford, Connecticut
We have audited the accompanying consolidated balance sheets of The Hartford Financial Services Group, Inc. and its
subsidiaries (collectively, the “Company”) as of December 31, 2008 and 2007, and the related consolidated statements of
operations, changes in stockholders’ equity, comprehensive income (loss), and cash flows for each of the three years in the
period ended December 31, 2008. Our audits also included the financial statement schedules listed in the Index at Item 15.
These financial statements and financial statement schedules are the responsibility of the Company’s management. Our
responsibility is to express an opinion on these financial statements and financial statement schedules based on our audits.
We conducted our audits 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 the
financial statements are free of material misstatement. An audit includes examining, on a test basis, evidence supporting the
amounts and disclosures in the financial statements. An audit also includes assessing the accounting principles used and
significant estimates made by management, as well as evaluating the overall financial statement presentation. We believe
that our audits provide a reasonable basis for our opinion.
In our opinion, such consolidated financial statements present fairly, in all material respects, the financial position of The
Hartford Financial Services Group, Inc. and its subsidiaries as of December 31, 2008 and 2007, and the results of their
operations and their cash flows for each of the three years in the period ended December 31, 2008, in conformity with
accounting principles generally accepted in the United States of America. Also, in our opinion, such financial statement
schedules, when considered in relation to the basic consolidated financial statements taken as a whole, present fairly, in all
material respects, the information set forth therein.
As discussed in Note 1 of the consolidated financial statements, the Company changed its method of accounting and
reporting for the fair value measurement of financial instruments in 2008, and defined benefit pension and other
postretirement plans in 2006.
We have also audited, in accordance with the standards of the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (United States),
the Company’s internal control over financial reporting as of December 31, 2008, based on the criteria established in
Internal Control—Integrated Framework issued by the Committee of Sponsoring Organizations of the Treadway
Commission and our report dated February 11, 2009 expressed an unqualified opinion on the Company’s internal control
over financial reporting.
DELOITTE & TOUCHE LLP
Hartford, Connecticut
February 11, 2009
F-2
Source: HARTFORD FINANCIAL S, 10-K, February 12, 2009