Investments

3 Months Ended

Mar. 31, 2013

Investments [Abstract]

Investments

8.     Investments

Investments consist of:

	March 31, 2013		December 31, 2012
	(in thousands)
Available-for-sale (primarily seed capital)	$	13,345	$	13,361
Trading:
Long-term incentive compensation-related		79,730		90,825
United States Treasury Bills		27,994		27,982
Seed capital		303,500		307,795
Equities and exchange-traded options		63,662		48,937
Investments in limited partnership hedge funds:
Long-term incentive compensation-related		29,776		32,152
Seed capital		130,300		109,328
Consolidated private equity fund (10% seed capital)		44,267		47,045
Private equity (seed capital)		46,652		47,853
Other		4,972		7,056
Total investments	$	744,198	$	732,334

Total investments related to long-term incentive compensation obligations of $109.5 million and $123.0 million as of March 31, 2013 and December 31, 2012, respectively, consist of company-sponsored mutual funds and hedge funds. We typically made investments in our services that were notionally elected by long-term incentive compensation plan participants and maintain them in a consolidated rabbi trust or separate custodial account. The rabbi trust and custodial account enable us to hold such investments separate from our other assets for the purpose of settling our obligations to participants. The investments held in the rabbi trust and custodial account remain available to the general creditors of AllianceBernstein.

The underlying investments of the hedge funds in which we invest include long and short positions in equity securities, fixed income securities (including various agency and non-agency asset-based securities), currencies, commodities and derivatives (including various swaps and forward contracts). These investments are valued at quoted market prices or, where quoted market prices are not available, are fair valued based on the pricing policies and procedures of the underlying funds.

United States Treasury Bills are held by SCB LLC in its investment account, the majority of which are pledged as collateral with clearing organizations. These clearing organizations have the ability by contract or custom to sell or re-pledge this collateral.

We provide seed capital to our investment teams to develop new products and services for our clients.

Trading securities also include long positions in corporate equities and long exchange-traded options traded through our options desk.