Item 4. Controls and Procedures
Item 4. Controls and Procedures
Evaluation of Disclosure Controls and Procedures
We maintain disclosure controls and procedures that are designed to ensure that information required to be disclosed in our Securities Exchange Act of 1934 (the “Exchange Act”) reports is recorded, processed,
summarized and reported within the time periods specified in the Securities and Exchange Commission’s rules and forms, and that such information is accumulated and communicated to management, including the Chief Executive Officer and Chief
Financial Officer, as appropriate, to allow timely decisions regarding required disclosure. Management necessarily applies its judgment in assessing the costs and benefits of such controls and procedures, which, by their nature, can provide
only reasonable assurance regarding management’s control objectives. The Company’s management, including the Chief Executive Officer and Chief Financial Officer, does not expect that our disclosure controls and procedures can prevent all
possible errors or fraud. A control system, no matter how well conceived and operated, can provide only reasonable, not absolute, assurance that the objectives of the control system are met. There are inherent limitations in all control
systems, including the realities that judgments in decision-making can be faulty, and that breakdowns can occur because of simple errors or mistakes. Additionally, controls can be circumvented by the intentional acts of one or more persons. The
design of any system of controls is based in part upon certain assumptions about the likelihood of future events, and, while our disclosure controls and procedures are designed to be effective under circumstances where they should reasonably be
expected to operate effectively, there can be no assurance that any design will succeed in achieving its stated goals under all potential future conditions. Because of the inherent limitations in any control system, misstatements due to
possible errors or fraud may occur and may not be detected.
As of the end of the period covered by this report, an evaluation was performed under the supervision and with the participation of our management, including the Chief Executive Officer and
Chief Financial Officer, of the effectiveness of the design and operation of the Company’s disclosure controls and procedures (as defined in Rules 13a-15(e) and 15d-15(e) of the Exchange Act). Based on that evaluation, management, including the
Chief Executive Officer and Chief Financial Officer, concluded that our disclosure controls and procedures were effective as of the end of the period covered by this report.
Remediation of Material Weakness in Internal Control Over Financial Reporting
Management of the Company is responsible for establishing and maintaining adequate internal control over financial reporting for the Company. The Company’s internal control over financial
reporting system has been designed to provide reasonable assurance regarding the reliability and the preparation of financial statements for external purposes in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles. Management recognizes
that there are inherent limitations in the effectiveness of any internal control system. Because of its inherent limitations, internal control over financial reporting may not prevent or detect all misstatements. Furthermore, the application of
any evaluations of effectiveness on 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. Therefore, even
those systems determined to be effective can provide only reasonable assurance with respect to financial statement preparation and presentation.
As previously disclosed in Part II, Item 9A. “Controls and Procedures” in the Company’s Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2022, we identified certain deficiencies in
internal control that we believe rose to the level of a material weakness. A material weakness is a deficiency, or combination of deficiencies, in internal control over financial reporting, such that there is a reasonable possibility that a
material misstatement of our annual or interim financial statements will not be prevented or detected on a timely basis. Specifically, management determined that certain process controls over the development, testing, and implementation of our
actuarial models used to estimate certain values in the Medicare supplement line of business within our life and health segment were not effective and the related management review controls did not operate at an appropriate level of precision
to identify anomalies in results timely enough to allow management to respond without delays in our financial reporting process for the quarter and year ended December 31, 2022 and the quarter ended March 31, 2023. Notwithstanding these
deficiencies, management believes that, as a result of the actions taken by management to address and correct these deficiencies prior to the completion and filing of the relevant periodic reports for those periods, and the effective operation
of other internal controls over financial reporting, the material weakness did not result in any identified material misstatements to our financial statements. As a result, there were no changes to any of our previously-released financial
statements.
To address the previously disclosed material weakness, the Company implemented changes in processes that include enhanced controls over the development, testing, and implementation of actuarial
models, and additional controls over the reporting of the financial information that is obtained from these models. During the quarter ended September 30, 2023, the Company successfully completed the testing necessary to conclude that the
material weakness has been remediated.
Changes in Internal Control Over Financial Reporting
Except for the changes described above, relating to the Company’s remediation efforts, there were no changes in the Company’s internal control over financial reporting during the quarter ended
September 30, 2023, that have materially affected, or are reasonably likely to materially affect, the Company’s internal control over financial reporting.
No system of controls, no matter how well designed and implemented, can provide absolute assurance that the objectives of the system of controls are met. Furthermore, no evaluation of controls
can provide absolute assurance that all control issues and any instances of fraud within a company have been detected.
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Table of Contents
PART II. OTHER INFORMATION
Text extracted from the filing as submitted to EDGAR. Formatting, tables and exhibits are simplified for reading; the original document is authoritative for anything you rely on.