Mercury Insurance 2008 Annual Report Download - page 60

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50
REPORT OF INDEPENDENT REGISTERED PUBLIC ACCOUNTING FIRM
The Board of Directors
Mercury General Corporation:
We have audited the accompanying consolidated balance sheets of Mercury General Corporation and subsidiaries as of
December 31, 2008 and 2007, and the related consolidated statements of operations, comprehensive (loss) income, shareholders’
equity, and cash flows for each of the years in the three-year period ended December 31, 2008. These consolidated financial
statements are the responsibility of the Company’ s management. Our responsibility is to express an opinion on these consolidated
financial statements 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, the consolidated financial statements referred to above present fairly, in all material respects, the financial
position of Mercury General Corporation and subsidiaries as of December 31, 2008 and 2007, and the results of their operations
and their cash flows for each of the years in the three-year period ended December 31, 2008, in conformity with U.S. generally
accepted accounting principles.
We also have audited, in accordance with the standards of the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (United
States), Mercury General Corporation’ s internal control over financial reporting as of December 31, 2008, based on criteria
established in Internal Control – Integrated Framework issued by the Committee of Sponsoring Organizations of the Treadway
Commission (COSO), and our report dated February 27, 2009 expressed an unqualified opinion on the effectiveness of Mercury
General Corporation and subsidiaries’ internal control over financial reporting.
As discussed in Note 1 to the consolidated financial statements, the Company has adopted the provisions of Statement of
Financial Accounting Standards No. 159, “The Fair Value Option for Financial Assets and Financial Liabilities”, as of January 1,
2008.
/s/ KPMG LLP
Los Angeles, California
February 27, 2009