Recent Accounting Pronouncements

3 Months Ended

Mar. 31, 2015

Accounting Changes And Error Corrections [Abstract]

Recent Accounting Pronouncements

8. Recent Accounting Pronouncements

In May 2014, the Financial Standards Board (“FASB”) and the International Accounting Standards Board (“IASB”) jointly issued a new revenue recognition standard, Accounting Standard Update (“ASU”) No. 2014-09, “Revenue from Contracts with Customers”, that will supersede virtually all revenue recognition guidance in GAAP and International Financial Reporting Standards (“IFRS”). This guidance has an effective date for public companies for annual and interim periods beginning after December 15, 2016, with early adoption not permitted. In April 2015, the FASB proposed a one-year deferral of this effective date with the option for entities to early adopt at the original effective date. The standard is intended to increase comparability across industries and jurisdictions. The underlying principle of the new standard is that a business or other organization will recognize revenue to depict the transfer of promised goods or services to customers in an amount that reflects what it expects in exchange for the goods or services. The new standard will not change accounting guidance for insurance contracts. However, the Company is currently evaluating this guidance as it relates to non-insurance arrangements and any impact it will have on future consolidated financial statements. At this time the impact is unknown.

In June 2014, the FASB made a decision to require insurance companies to make additional disclosures about short-term duration contracts. This guidance has an effective date for public companies for annual reporting periods beginning after December 15, 2015 and interim reporting periods beginning after December 15, 2016, with early adoption permitted. The Company believes that it will be reasonably able to comply with these requirements.

In April 2015, the FASB issued ASU No. 2015-03, “Interest-Imputation of Interest” as final guidance to simplify the presentation of debt issuance costs by requiring such costs to be presented as a deduction from the corresponding liability, consistent with the presentation of debt discounts or premiums. Although this guidance has an effective date for public companies for annual and interim periods beginning after December 15, 2015, the Company has elected early adoption as permitted in the current period and retrospectively to all prior periods presented in the consolidated financial statements. As a result, $128 thousand and $130 thousand, respectively, were reclassified and deducted from debentures payable at March 31, 2015 and December 31, 2014, respectively.  

In April 2015, the FASB published ASU No. 2015-05, “Intangibles-Goodwill and Other-Internal Use Software (Subtopic 350-40): Customer’s Accounting for Fees Paid in a Cloud Computing Arrangement” to clarify how customers in cloud computing arrangements should determine whether the arrangement includes a software license. The amendment also eliminates today’s requirement that customers analogize to the leases standard when determining the assets acquired in a software licensing arrangement. For calendar year-end entities, the guidance is effective January 1, 2016 and early adoption is permitted. Entities have the option of applying the guidance prospectively or retrospectively. The Company does not believe that this amendment will affect the accounting treatment for any of its current arrangements.

In May 2015, the FASB issued final guidance to remove the requirement to categorize within the fair value hierarchy all investments for which fair value is measured using the net asset value of the investment as a practical expedient. Investments that calculate net asset value (or its equivalent), but for which the practical expedient is not applied, will continue to be included in the fair value hierarchy. The guidance also removed the requirement to make certain disclosures for all investments that are eligible to be measured at fair value using the net asset value practical expedient. Rather, those disclosures are limited to investments for which the entity has elected to estimate the fair value using that practical expedient. The guidance will be applied retrospectively for public business entities for fiscal years beginning after December 15, 2015 and interim periods within those years. Early adoption is permitted. The Company plans to discontinue including such investments in its fair value hierarchy table at June 30, 2015.