Fair Value Disclosures

12 Months Ended

Dec. 31, 2016

The Company’s financial instruments include cash equivalents, fees receivable from customers, accounts payable, and accruals which are normally short-term in nature. The Company believes the carrying amounts of these financial instruments reasonably approximates their fair value due to their short-term nature. The Company’s financial instruments also include its outstanding borrowings under the 2016 Credit Agreement, and at December 31, 2016, the Company had $700.0 million of floating rate debt outstanding under this arrangement, which is carried at amortized cost. The Company believes the carrying amount of the outstanding borrowings reasonably approximates fair value since the rate of interest on these variable rate borrowings reflect current market rates of interest for similar instruments with comparable maturities.

The Company enters into a limited number of derivatives transactions but does not enter into repurchase agreements, securities lending transactions, or master netting arrangements. Receivables or payables that result from derivatives transactions are recorded gross in the Company’s Consolidated Balance Sheets.

FASB ASC Topic No. 820 provides a framework for the measurement of fair value and a valuation hierarchy based upon the transparency of inputs used in the valuation of assets and liabilities. Classification within the hierarchy is based upon the lowest level of input that is significant to the resulting fair value measurement. The valuation hierarchy contains three levels. Level 1 measurements consist of quoted prices in active markets for identical assets or liabilities. Level 2 measurements include significant other observable inputs such as quoted prices for similar assets or liabilities in active markets; identical assets or liabilities in inactive markets; observable inputs such as interest rates and yield curves; and other market-corroborated inputs. Level 3 measurements include significant unobservable inputs, such as internally-created valuation models. The Company does not currently utilize Level 3 valuation inputs to remeasure any of its assets or liabilities. However, level 3 inputs may be used by the Company in its required annual impairment review of goodwill (information regarding the Company's periodic assessment of goodwill is included in Note 1 — Business and Significant Accounting Policies). The Company does not typically transfer assets or liabilities between different levels of the fair value hierarchy.

The Company’s assets and liabilities that are remeasured to fair value are presented in the following table (in thousands):



	Fair Value		Fair Value
Description:	December 31, 2016		December 31, 2015
Assets:
Values based on Level 1 inputs:
Deferred compensation plan assets (1)	$	10,247	$	8,671
Total Level 1 inputs	$	10,247	$	8,671
Values based on Level 2 inputs:
Deferred compensation plan assets (1)	$	27,847	$	25,474
Foreign currency forward contracts (2)	165		610
Total Level 2 inputs	$	28,012	$	26,084
Total Assets	$	38,259	$	34,755
Liabilities:
Values based on Level 2 inputs:
Deferred compensation plan liabilities (1)	$	43,075	$	39,071
Foreign currency forward contracts (2)	485		375
Interest rate swap contracts (3)	2,349		5,132
Total Level 2 inputs	$	45,909	$	44,578
Total Liabilities	$	45,909	$	44,578

(1)

The Company has a deferred compensation plan for the benefit of certain highly compensated officers, managers and other key employees (see Note 13 — Employee Benefits). The assets consist of investments in money market and mutual funds, and company-owned life insurance contracts. The money market funds consist of cash equivalents while the mutual fund investments consist of publicly-traded and quoted equity shares. The Company considers the fair value of these assets to be based on Level 1 inputs, and these assets had a fair value of $10.2 million and $8.7 million as of December 31, 2016 and 2015, respectively. The carrying amount of the life insurance contracts equals their cash surrender value. Cash surrender value represents the estimated amount that the Company would receive upon termination of the contract, which approximates fair value. The Company considers the life insurance contracts to be valued based on a Level 2 input, and these assets had a fair value of $27.8 million and $25.5 million at December 31, 2016 and 2015, respectively. The related deferred compensation plan liabilities are recorded at fair value, or the estimated amount needed to settle the liability, which the Company considers to be a Level 2 input.


(2)	The Company enters into foreign currency forward exchange contracts to hedge the effects of adverse fluctuations in foreign currency exchange rates (see Note 11 — Derivatives and Hedging). Valuation of the foreign currency forward contracts is based on foreign currency exchange rates in active markets, which the Company considers a Level 2 input.

(3)

The Company has interest rate swap contracts which hedge the variability of interest payments on its borrowings (see Note 11 — Derivatives and Hedging). The fair value of the swaps is based on mark-to-market valuations provided by a third-party broker. The valuations are based on observable interest rates from recently executed market transactions and other observable market data, which the Company considers Level 2 inputs. The Company independently corroborates the reasonableness of the valuations prepared by the third-party broker through the use of an electronic quotation service.

- Definition

The entire disclosure for the fair value of financial instruments (as defined), including financial assets and financial liabilities (collectively, as defined), and the measurements of those instruments as well as disclosures related to the fair value of non-financial assets and liabilities. Such disclosures about the financial instruments, assets, and liabilities would include: (1) the fair value of the required items together with their carrying amounts (as appropriate); (2) for items for which it is not practicable to estimate fair value, disclosure would include: (a) information pertinent to estimating fair value (including, carrying amount, effective interest rate, and maturity, and (b) the reasons why it is not practicable to estimate fair value; (3) significant concentrations of credit risk including: (a) information about the activity, region, or economic characteristics identifying a concentration, (b) the maximum amount of loss the entity is exposed to based on the gross fair value of the related item, (c) policy for requiring collateral or other security and information as to accessing such collateral or security, and (d) the nature and brief description of such collateral or security; (4) quantitative information about market risks and how such risks are managed; (5) for items measured on both a recurring and nonrecurring basis information regarding the inputs used to develop the fair value measurement; and (6) for items presented in the financial statement for which fair value measurement is elected: (a) information necessary to understand the reasons for the election, (b) discussion of the effect of fair value changes on earnings, (c) a description of [similar groups] items for which the election is made and the relation thereof to the balance sheet, the aggregate carrying value of items included in the balance sheet that are not eligible for the election; (7) all other required (as defined) and desired information.

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