Explorer

The issuer used a service organization to perform recordkeeping and pricing for its available-for-sale securities. The firm selected for testing a control that consisted of the issuer's comparison of prices this service organization used to prices that the issuer obtained from an external pricing service. The firm did not identify and test any controls over the accuracy and completeness of a system-generated report used in the operation of this control. (AS 2201.39)

The issuer recorded its investment securities and related disclosures based on data it obtained from a service organization. The firm selected for testing controls that included the issuer's comparisons of its recorded investment securities to these data. The firm did not identify and test any controls over the accuracy and completeness of these data. (AS 2201.39)

The issuer recorded the fair value of its available-for-sale securities based on prices it obtained from an external pricing service. The firm selected for testing a control over the valuation of these securities that consisted of the issuer's comparison of its recorded prices to prices obtained from another external pricing service. The firm did not identify and test any controls over the accuracy and completeness of the list of the issuer's securities used by the control owner in performing the comparison. (AS 2201.39)

The issuer recorded the fair value of its available-for-sale securities based on prices it obtained from an external pricing service (primary pricing service). The firm selected for testing a control over the valuation of these securities that consisted of the issuer's comparison of its recorded prices to prices obtained from another external pricing service and the issuer's investigation of (1) price variances that exceeded certain thresholds or (2) securities for which prices were not provided by the primary pricing service. The issuer manually entered the securities and prices obtained from both pricing services into a spreadsheet for this comparison. The following deficiencies were identified: · The firm did not identify and test any controls over a report that the control owner used to assess the accuracy and completeness of the issuer's securities that were manually entered into the comparison spreadsheet. (AS 2201.39)

The firm did not perform any substantive procedures to evaluate the appropriateness of the issuer's categorization of these investment securities within the fair value hierarchy beyond tracing the balances that were disclosed for each category to an issuer-prepared analysis. (AS 2301.08)

The firm did not perform any substantive procedures to evaluate the appropriateness of the issuer's categorization of these investment securities within the fair value hierarchy set forth in FASB ASC Topic 820 Fair Value Measurement beyond tracing the balances that were disclosed for each category to issuer-prepared schedules. (AS 2301.08)

The issuer recorded the fair values of certain of its available-for-sale (AFS) securities based on broker quotes. The following deficiencies were identified: · The firm did not perform any substantive procedures to evaluate the appropriateness of the issuer's categorization of these securities within the fair value hierarchy beyond tracing the balances that were disclosed for each category to issuer-prepared schedules. (AS 2301.08)

The issuer disclosed various information about its investment securities that were in unrealized loss positions at year end. The following deficiencies were identified: · The firm did not identify and test any controls over the accuracy and completeness of the issuer-prepared schedules used to develop this disclosure. (AS 2201.39)

The issuer disclosed various information about its investment securities that were in unrealized loss positions at year end. The following deficiencies were identified: · The firm used these issuer-prepared schedules in its testing of this disclosure but did not perform any procedures to test or test controls over the accuracy and completeness of these schedules. (AS 1105.10)

The issuer recorded most of its AFS securities at fair value based on prices including broker quotes it obtained from external pricing services. The following deficiencies were identified: · The firm did not perform any substantive procedures to evaluate the appropriateness of the issuer's categorization of these AFS securities within the fair value hierarchy beyond tracing the balances that were disclosed for each category to issuer-prepared schedules. (AS 2301.08)

The issuer disclosed various information about its investment securities that were in unrealized loss positions at year end. The following deficiencies were identified: · The firm selected for testing a control that consisted of the issuer's review of this disclosure but did not identify and test any controls over the accuracy and completeness of the data that the control owners used in the operation of this control. (AS 2201.39)

The firm selected for testing a complementary user control that consisted of monthly balance sheet reconciliations. The firm did not identify and test any controls over the accuracy and completeness of the investment statements from the sub-service organizations that the control owners used in the performance of this control. (AS 2201.39 and .B19)

The issuer held a portfolio of investments which were carried at fair value. The following deficiencies were identified: · The firm selected for testing a control that consisted of a comparison and analysis of differences between the fair values of certain investments recorded in the issuer's system and external price sources and the investigation of variances over established thresholds. The firm did not test any controls over the accuracy and completeness of certain data used in the operation of this control. (AS 2201.39)