Audit procedures applied in insurance companies

The aim of this thesis is to assess the effectiveness of certain audit approaches and to propose an optimum solution for quality in the particular conditions of an insurance company. To reach this goal the specifics of the audit of financial statements of insurance companies will be defined, beginning with an outline of the essential processes in insurance companies and identifying the main inherent risks from the auditor's perspective, identifying controls applied by insurance companies to prevent or detect mistakes due to inherent risks and proposing essential substantive tests to verify particular balances in financial statements, and ending with a proposal for an optimum audit approach in the particular conditions of an insurance company. The thesis is divided into two parts a general background and its application. The content of chapter 3 provides a general background of insurance as a general area (chapter 2.1), financial statements of an insurance company (chapter 2.2) and audit as a general area (chapter 2.3). The objective of these chapters is to present readers with this issue and to introduce them to this area rather than provide a detailed analysis of the insurance business as whole or an assessment of general audit. The application of the background in the conditions of insurance companies is the topic of chapters 4 and 5. Chapter 4 represents the core of this thesis as it includes a description of processes in an insurance company, identification of the main inherent risks, specifics in planning an audit of an insurance company, internal controls implemented by an insurance company and substantive tests. Based on chosen measures differentiating insurance companies and distributing them into groups based on their similarities, chapter 5 sets out the most appropriate audit approach with the aim of maximizing audit efficiency