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the security for a period of time sufficient for an anticipated recovery in fair value, and the financialcondition and specific events related to the issuer. When an impairment of an available-for-sale equitysecurity is determined to be other-than-temporary, we recognize the impairment in earnings. Foravailable-for-sale debt securities, if we intend to sell or it is more likely than not that we will be required tosell a security before recovery of its amortized cost, we record the entire impairment in earnings. If we donot intend to sell or it is not more likely than not that we will be required to sell the security beforeanticipated recovery of its amortized cost, we separate the impairment into the amount of the totalimpairment related to the credit loss and the amount of the total impairment related to all other factors. Thecredit loss component is the difference between the security’s amortized cost and the present value of theexpected cash flows. The credit loss component is recognized in earnings and the losses related to all otherfactors are recognized in accumulated other comprehensive income. While we believe that we haveaccurately estimated the amount of other-than-temporary impairment in our portfolio, different assumptionscould result in changes to the recorded amounts in our consolidated financial statements.Goodwill and Other Intangible AssetsGoodwill represents the excess cost of a business acquisition over the fair value of the net assetsacquired. Intangible assets consist primarily of mutual fund management contracts and customer base assetsresulting from business acquisitions. We amortize intangible assets over their estimated useful lives, whichrange from seven to 15 years, using the straight-line method, unless the asset is determined to have anindefinite useful life. Indefinite-lived intangible assets primarily represent contracts to manage mutual fundassets for which there is no foreseeable limit on the contract period.We make significant estimates and assumptions when valuing goodwill and other intangible assets inconnection with the initial purchase price allocation of an acquired entity, as well as when evaluatingimpairment of goodwill and other intangible assets on an ongoing basis.Goodwill is tested for impairment annually and when an event occurs or circumstances change thatmore likely than not reduce the fair value of a reporting unit below its carrying value. Historically, wecompleted our annual goodwill impairment test as of October 1 of each fiscal year. During fiscal year 2009,we changed our annual impairment test date from October 1 to August 1 of each year. We believe theAugust 1 date better aligns our annual goodwill impairment test with the budget data developed inconnection with the budgeting process that takes place in July and August. In addition, the annualimpairment test will be completed during our fourth fiscal quarter using the most recent financialinformation such that the results will better reflect the fiscal year being reported. This change to the date ofour annual goodwill impairment test constitutes a change in the method of applying an accounting principle.We believe that this change in accounting principle is preferable and we filed a letter of preferability fromour independent registered public accounting firm regarding this change in accounting principle as anexhibit to our Form 10-Q for the quarter ended March 31, 2009.Our goodwill impairment test involves a two-step process. The first step requires the identification ofthe reporting units, and comparison of the fair value of each of these reporting units to the respectivecarrying value. If the carrying value is less than the fair value, no impairment exists and the second step isnot performed. If the carrying value is higher than the fair value, there is an indication that impairment mayexist and the second step is performed to compute the amount of the impairment. In the second step, theimpairment is computed by comparing the implied fair value of reporting unit goodwill with the carryingvalue of that goodwill. We have two reporting units, investment management and related services andbanking/finance, which are the same as our operating segments. All goodwill has been assigned to theinvestment management and related services reporting unit.55

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