Fair Value Disclosures

9 Months Ended

Sep. 30, 2012

Fair Value Disclosures [Text Block]

Note 11 — Fair Value Disclosures

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 approximate their fair value due to their short-term nature. The Company’s financial instruments also include borrowings outstanding under its 2010 Credit Agreement, and at September 30, 2012, the Company had $200.0 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 the borrowings reflect current market rates of interest for similar instruments with comparable maturities.

FASB ASC Topic 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.

On January 1, 2012, the Company adopted ASU No. 2011-04, Fair Value Measurement (Topic 820): Amendments to Achieve Common Fair Value Measurement and Disclosure Requirements in U.S. GAAP and IFRSs, which updates FASB ASC Topic 820 with new requirements. These include: (1) a prohibition on grouping financial instruments for purposes of determining fair value, except when an entity manages market and credit risks on the basis of the entity’s net exposure to the group; (2) an extension of the prohibition against the use of a blockage factor to all fair value measurements (that prohibition currently applies only to financial instruments with quoted prices in active markets); and (3) a requirement that for recurring Level 3 fair value measurements, entities disclose additional quantitative information about unobservable inputs, a description of the valuation process used and qualitative details about the sensitivity of the measurements and their potential impact on operating results.

The Company has a limited number of assets and liabilities recorded in its Consolidated Balance Sheets that are remeasured to fair value on a recurring basis, and the Company does not currently utilize Level 3 valuation inputs to remeasure any of its assets or liabilities. In addition, the Company typically does not transfer assets or liabilities between different levels of the fair value hierarchy. As a result, the adoption of ASU No. 2011-04 did not result in any changes to the Company’s processes for determining fair values or require additional fair value disclosures.

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

Description:	Fair Value September 30, 2012		Fair Value December 31, 2011
Assets:
Deferred compensation plan assets (1)	$	27,000	$	25,050
Pension reinsurance asset (2)		14,350		12,980
Foreign currency forward contracts (3)		—		272
	$	41,350	$	38,302
Liabilities:
Deferred compensation plan liabilities (1)	$	30,290	$	28,100
Foreign currency forward contracts (3)		240		—
Interest rate swap contract (4)		11,000		9,989
	$	41,530	$	38,089

(1)	The Company has a deferred compensation plan for the benefit of certain highly compensated employees. The assets consist of investments in money market and mutual funds, and company-owned life insurance contracts, all of which are valued based on Level 1 or Level 2 valuation inputs. The related deferred compensation plan liabilities are recorded at fair value, or the estimated amount needed to settle the liability, which the Company also considers to be based on a Level 2 input.
(2)	The Company maintains a pension reinsurance asset to fund payments for one of its defined benefit pension plans. The reinsurance asset is carried at its cash surrender value, which the Company believes approximates its fair value. The Company considers the reinsurance contract to be valued based on a Level 2 input.
(3)	The Company enters into foreign currency forward exchange contracts to hedge the effects of adverse fluctuations in foreign currency exchange rates. Valuation of the foreign currency forward contracts is based on observable foreign currency exchange rates in active markets, which the Company considers a Level 2 input.
(4)	The Company has an interest rate swap contract which hedges the interest rate on its borrowings (see Note 7 — Debt). To determine the fair value of this over-the-counter financial instrument, the Company relies on a mark-to-market valuation prepared by a third-party broker. The valuation is based on observable interest rates from recently executed market transactions or broker quotes corroborated by other observable market data. Accordingly, the fair value of the swap is determined under a Level 2 input. The Company independently corroborates the reasonableness of the swap valuation prepared by the third-party broker through the use of an electronic quotation service.