UPDATE OF SIGNIFICANT ACCOUNTING POLICIES

6 Months Ended

Mar. 31, 2015

Accounting Policies [Abstract]

UPDATE OF SIGNIFICANT ACCOUNTING POLICIES

UPDATE OF SIGNIFICANT ACCOUNTING POLICIES

A summary of our significant accounting policies is included in Note 2 on pages 100 - 118 of our 2014 Form 10-K. There have been no significant changes in our significant accounting policies since September 30, 2014.

Brokerage client receivables, loans to financial advisors and allowance for doubtful accounts

As more fully described in Note 2 on page 107 - 108 of our 2014 Form 10-K, we have certain financing receivables that arise from businesses other than our banking business. Specifically, we offer loans to financial advisors and certain key revenue producers, primarily for recruiting and retention purposes. We present the outstanding balance of loans to financial advisors on our Condensed Consolidated Statements of Financial Condition, net of their applicable allowances for doubtful accounts. The allowance for doubtful accounts balance associated with all of our loans to financial advisors is $3.3 million and $2.5 million at March 31, 2015 and September 30, 2014, respectively. Of the March 31, 2015 loans to financial advisors, the portion of the balance associated with financial advisors who are no longer affiliated with us, after consideration of the allowance for doubtful accounts, is approximately $4.9 million.