Exhibit
23(iii)
REPORT OF
INDEPENDENT ACCOUNTANTS
To the Board of
Directors and Policyholders of
C.M. Life Insurance
Company:
We have audited the accompanying statutory
statement of financial position of C.M. Life Insurance Company as of
December 31, 1998, and the related statutory statements of income and
changes in shareholders equity, and of cash flows for each of the two
years in the period ended December 31, 1998. These financial statements are
the responsibility of the Companys management. Our responsibility is
to express an opinion on these financial statements based on our
audits.
We conducted our audits in accordance with
generally accepted auditing standards. Those standards require that we plan
and perform the audit to obtain reasonable assurance about whether the
financial statements are free of material misstatement. An audit includes
examining, on a test basis, evidence supporting the amounts and disclosures
in the financial statements. An audit also includes assessing the accounting
principles used and significant estimates made by management, as well as
evaluating the overall financial statement presentation. We believe that our
audits provide a reasonable basis for our opinion. We have not audited the
financial statements of C.M. Life Insurance Company for any period
subsequent to December 31, 1998.
As described in Note 1, these financial
statements were prepared in conformity with accounting practices prescribed
or permitted by the Department of Insurance of the State of Connecticut,
which practices differ from generally accepted accounting principles. The
effects on the financial statements of the variances between the statutory
basis of accounting and generally accepted accounting principles, although
not reasonably determinable, are presumed to be material.
In our opinion, because of the effects of the
matter discussed in the preceding paragraph, the financial statements
audited by us do not present fairly, in conformity with generally accepted
accounting principles, the financial position of C.M. Life Insurance Company
as of December 31, 1998, or the results of its operations or its cash flows
for each of the two years in the period ended December 31, 1998.
In our opinion, the financial statements
audited by us, present fairly, in all material respects, the financial
position of C.M. Life Insurance Company as of December 31, 1998, and the
results of its operations and its cash flows for each of the two years in
the period ended December 31, 1998, on the basis of accounting described in
Note 1.
PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP
Hartford,
Connecticut
February 25,
1999