§ 26-3-312 — Definition, availability and maintenance of independent certified public accountants' workpapers

(a) Workpapers are the records kept by the independent
certified public accountant of the procedures followed, the
tests performed, the information obtained, and the conclusions
reached pertinent to his audit of the financial statements of an
insurer. Workpapers may include audit planning documentation,
work programs, analyses, memoranda, letters of confirmation and
representation, abstracts of company documents and schedules or
commentaries prepared or obtained by the independent certified
public accountant in the course of his audit of the financial
statements of an insurer and which support his opinion of those
financial statements.
(b) Every insurer required to file an audited financial
report pursuant to this article shall require the accountant to
make available for review by department examiners, all
workpapers prepared in the conduct of his audit and any
communications related to the audit between the accountant and
the insurer, at the offices of the insurer, the department or at
any other reasonable place designated by the commissioner. The
insurer shall require that the accountant retain the audit
workpapers and communications until the department has filed a
report on examination covering the period of the audit but no
longer than seven (7) years from the date of the audit report.
(c) In the conduct of the periodic review by the
department examiners under this section, it shall be agreed that
photocopies of pertinent audit workpapers may be made and
retained by the department. Such reviews by the department
examiners shall be considered investigations and all workpapers
and communications obtained during the course of the
investigations shall be afforded the same confidentiality as
other examination workpapers generated by the department.