58-43-2. Annual audit required--Filing audited financial report--Extension of filing date--Audit committee. Each insurer having direct premiums written in this state of more than one million dollars in any calendar year and more than one thousand policyholders or certificate holders of directly written policies nationwide at the end of a calendar year is required to have an annual audit by an accountant of the financial statements reporting the financial position and the results of operations. This chapter also applies to insurers having assumed premiums pursuant to contracts or treaties of reinsurance of one million dollars or more. The director may require insurers with less than one million dollars in direct premiums and less than one thousand policyholders or certificate holders to have independent audits to determine the financial status of the insurer.

The insurer shall file an audited financial report with the director on or before June first for the immediately preceding year. The director may require an insurer to file an audited financial report earlier than June first with ninety days advance notice to the insurer.

Extensions of the June first filing date may be granted by the director for thirty-day periods upon showing by the insurer and its accountant to the director that there is good cause for an extension. The request for extension shall be submitted in writing to the director not less than ten days prior to the due date in sufficient detail to permit the director to make an informed decision.

If an extension is granted, a similar extension of thirty days is granted for the filing of the Management's Report of Internal Control over Financial Reporting.

Each insurer required to file an annual audited financial report pursuant to this chapter shall designate a group of individuals as constituting the insurer's audit committee. The audit committee of an entity that controls an insurer may be deemed to be the insurer's audit committee for purposes of this chapter at the election of the controlling person.

Source: SL 1992, ch 357, § 2; SL 2009, ch 271, § 3.