Assurant 2015 Annual Report Download - page 87

ASSURANT, INC. – 2015 Form 10-K F-1
Report of Independent Registered Public Accounting Firm
To the Board of Directors and Stockholders of Assurant, Inc.:
In our opinion, the consolidated nancial statements listed
in the index appearing under Item 15(a)1 present fairly, in all
material respects, the nancial position of Assurant, Inc. and
its subsidiaries (the “Company”) at December 31, 2015 and
2014, and the results of its operations and its cash ows for
each of the three years in the period ended December 31, 2015
in conformity with accounting principles generally accepted in
the United States of America. In addition, in our opinion, the
nancial statement schedules listed in the index appearing
under Item 15(a)2 present fairly, in all material respects, the
information set forth therein when read in conjunction with
the related consolidated nancial statements. Also in our
opinion, the Company maintained, in all material respects,
effective internal control over nancial reporting as of
December 31, 2015, based on criteria established in Internal
Control — Integrated Framework (2013) issued by the
Committee of Sponsoring Organizations of the Treadway
Commission (COSO). The Company’s management is responsible
for these nancial statements and nancial statement
schedules, for maintaining effective internal control over
nancial reporting and for its assessment of the effectiveness
of internal control over nancial reporting, included in
Management’s Annual Report on Internal Control Over Financial
Reporting, appearing under Item 9A. Our responsibility is to
express opinions on these nancial statements, on the nancial
statement schedules, and on the Company’s internal control
over nancial reporting based on our integrated 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
audits to obtain reasonable assurance about whether the
nancial statements are free of material misstatement and
whether effective internal control over nancial reporting
was maintained in all material respects. Our audits of the
nancial statements included examining, on a test basis,
evidence supporting the amounts and disclosures in the
nancial statements, assessing the accounting principles used
and signicant estimates made by management, and evaluating
the overall nancial statement presentation. Our audit of
internal control over nancial reporting included obtaining
an understanding of internal control over nancial reporting,
assessing the risk that a material weakness exists, and testing
and evaluating the design and operating effectiveness of
internal control based on the assessed risk. Our audits also
included performing such other procedures as we considered
necessary in the circumstances. We believe that our audits
provide a reasonable basis for our opinions.
A company’s internal control over nancial reporting is a
process designed to provide reasonable assurance regarding
the reliability of nancial reporting and the preparation of
nancial statements for external purposes in accordance
with generally accepted accounting principles. A company’s
internal control over nancial reporting includes those
policies and procedures that (i) pertain to the maintenance
of records that, in reasonable detail, accurately and fairly
reect the transactions and dispositions of the assets of the
company; (ii) provide reasonable assurance that transactions
are recorded as necessary to permit preparation of nancial
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 (iii)
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 nancial statements.
Because of its inherent limitations, internal control over
nancial reporting may not prevent or detect misstatements.
Also, projections of any evaluation of effectiveness to future
periods are subject to the risk that controls may become
inadequate because of changes in conditions, or that the
degree of compliance with the policies or procedures may
deteriorate.
/s/PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP
New York, New York
February 16, 2016