Real Estate Charges

12 Months Ended

Dec. 31, 2016

Restructuring and Related Activities [Abstract]

During 2010, we performed a comprehensive review of our real estate requirements in New York in connection with our workforce reductions, which commenced in 2008. As a result, during 2010 we decided to sub-lease over 380,000 square feet in New York (all of this space has been sublet) and consolidate our New York-based employees into two office locations from three. During the third quarter of 2012, in an effort to further reduce our global real estate footprint, we completed a comprehensive review of our worldwide office locations and began implementing a global space consolidation plan. As a result, we decided to sub-lease approximately 510,000 square feet of office space (all of this space has been sublet), more than 70% of which is New York office space (in addition to the 380,000 square feet space reduction in 2010), with the remainder consisting of office space in England, Australia and various U.S. locations.

During 2014, we recorded pre-tax real estate charges of $0.1 million, comprising $5.5 million for the write-off of leasehold improvements, furniture and equipment ($5.0 million related to the 2012 plan and $0.5 million related to other real estate charges), offset by $4.7 million from a change in estimates related to previously recorded real estate charges (primarily relating to the 2010 and 2012 plans) and $0.7 million in credits related to other items.

During 2015, we recorded pre-tax real estate charges of $1.0 million, resulting from a change in estimates related to previously recorded real estate charges.

During 2016, we recorded pre-tax real estate charges of $17.7 million, resulting from new charges of $22.8 million relating to the further consolidation of office space at our New York offices, offset by changes in estimates related to previously recorded real estate charges of $5.1 million, which reflects the shortening of the lease term of our corporate headquarters from 2029 to 2024.

The activity in the liability account relating to our 2010 and 2012 office space consolidation initiatives for 2016 and 2015 is as follows:



	Year Ended December 31,
	2016			2015
	(in thousands)
Balance as of January 1,	$	116,064		$	148,429
(Credit) expense incurred	(2,874		)	2,258
Payments made	(25,829		)	(38,920		)
Interest accretion	4,293			4,297
Balance as of end of period	$	91,654		$	116,064