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Related Party Transactions (Narrative) (Details) (USD $)
In Thousands, except Share data, unless otherwise specified
12 Months Ended 0 Months Ended
Dec. 31, 2014
Dec. 31, 2013
Jul. 26, 2013
Aug. 10, 2012
Counsel Loan $ 2,985us-gaap_DueToRelatedPartiesCurrent $ 2,550us-gaap_DueToRelatedPartiesCurrent    
Intellectual property licensing revenue 0hgbl_RevenueIntellectualPropertyLicense 624hgbl_RevenueIntellectualPropertyLicense    
Related Party Transaction, Description of Transaction In the first quarter of 2013, Counsel announced its plan to dispose of its interest in HGI, and on March 20, 2014, Counsel declared a dividend in kind, consisting of Counsel’s distribution of its majority interest in HGI to Counsel shareholders. The payment was made on April 30, 2014 to shareholders of record at April 1, 2014. Following this disposition, the Company and Counsel entered into a replacement management services agreement (the “Services Agreement”). Under the terms of the Services Agreement, Counsel remains as external manager and continues to provide the same services, at similar rates. The Services Agreement has an initial term of one year, which renews automatically for successive one-year terms unless notice by either party is given within ninety days before the expiration. The Services Agreement may be terminated at any time upon mutual agreement of the Company and Counsel. The Company intends to internalize its management in the future, but expects that it will continue to avail itself of the services provided under the Services Agreement until such time. Beginning in December 2004, HGI and Counsel entered into successive annual management services agreements (collectively, the “Agreement”). Under the terms of the Agreement, HGI agreed to pay Counsel for ongoing services provided to HGI by Counsel personnel. These services included preparation of the Company’s financial statements and regulatory filings, taxation matters, stock-based compensation administration, Board administration, patent portfolio administration and litigation matters. The Counsel employees providing the services were: 1) its Executive Vice President, Secretary and Chief Financial Officer, 2) its Tax Manager, 3) an Accounting Manager, and 4) its Accounts Payable Clerk. These employees have the same or similar positions with HGI, but none of them received compensation from HGI. Rather, Counsel allocated to HGI a percentage, based on time incurred, of the employees’ base compensation paid by Counsel. Beginning in the first quarter of 2011, additional amounts were charged to HGI for Counsel services specifically relating to the ongoing operations of HGI’s asset liquidation business. The amounts due under the Agreement were payable within 30 days following the respective year end, subject to applicable restrictions. Any unpaid amounts bore interest at 10% per annum commencing on the day after such year end.    
Counsel Loan [Member]        
Related Party Debt, Interest rate 5.25%us-gaap_RelatedPartyTransactionRate
/ us-gaap_DebtInstrumentAxis
= hgbl_CounselloanMember
10.00%us-gaap_RelatedPartyTransactionRate
/ us-gaap_DebtInstrumentAxis
= hgbl_CounselloanMember
   
Co Chief Executive Officers [Member]        
Common Stock Shares Issued for Each Co-CEO       400,000hgbl_CommonStockSharesIssuedForEachCoCeo
/ us-gaap_BusinessAcquisitionAxis
= hgbl_CoChiefExecutiveOfficersMember
Common shares valued at       1,054hgbl_SharesValuedAt
/ us-gaap_BusinessAcquisitionAxis
= hgbl_CoChiefExecutiveOfficersMember
Intellectual property licensing revenue     $ 624hgbl_RevenueIntellectualPropertyLicense
/ us-gaap_BusinessAcquisitionAxis
= hgbl_CoChiefExecutiveOfficersMember