7.    Fair Value Measurements

The Company defines the fair value of a financial instrument as the amount that would be received from the sale of an asset in an orderly transaction between market participants at the measurement date. The Company is responsible for the determination of the value of the investment carried and fair value and the supporting methodologies and assumptions. The Company uses various pricing sources to validate the values utilized.

The degree of judgment used in measuring the fair value of financial instruments generally inversely correlates with the level of observable valuation inputs. Financial instruments with quoted prices in active markets generally have more pricing observability and less judgment is used in measuring fair value. Financial instruments for which no quoted prices are available have less observability and are measured at fair value using valuation models or other pricing techniques that require more judgment.

Assets recorded at fair value are measured and classified in accordance with a fair value hierarchy consisting of the three “levels” based on the observability of inputs available in the market place used to measure the fair values as discussed below:

Level 1: Unadjusted quoted prices in active markets that are accessible at the measurement date for identical, unrestricted assets or liabilities;

Level 2: Quoted prices in markets that are not active, or inputs which are observable, either directly or indirectly, for substantially the full term of the asset or liability; or

Level 3: Inputs reflect management’s best estimate of what market participants would use in pricing the asset or liability at the measurement date. Consideration is given to the risk inherent in the valuation technique and the risk inherent in the inputs to the model.

Recurring Fair Value Measurements

The Company values its investments including investments held in rabbi trust, money market funds and investments in marketable securities, available for sale at fair value on a recurring basis.

Investments carried at fair value are categorized into one of the three categories described above and consisted of the following (in thousands):

There were no transfers in or out of Level 1 and Level 2 during the three months ended March 31, 2015 and 2014.

Non-Recurring Fair Value Measurements

The Company’s cash and cash equivalents, commissions receivable, amounts due from employees (included in employee notes receivable caption) and sales and financing professionals (included in other assets caption), accounts payable and accrued expenses and commissions payable are carried at cost, which approximates fair value based on their immediate or short-term maturities and terms, which approximate current market rates, and are considered to be in the Level 1 classification.

As the Company’s obligations under notes payable to former stockholders bear fixed interest rates that approximate current interest rates for debt instruments with similar terms and maturities, the Company has determined that the carrying value on these instruments approximates fair value. As the Company’s obligations under SARs liability (included in deferred compensation and commission’s caption) bear interest at a variable rate based on U.S. Treasuries, the Company has determined that the carrying value approximates the fair value. These are considered to be in the Level 2 classification.