Investment income and other gains and losses. Gross realized investment and other gains and losses follows:



	Three Months Ended September 30,				Nine Months Ended September 30,
	2017		2016		2017		2016
	($000 omitted)
Realized gains	548		3,301		1,392		8,377
Realized losses	(1,595	)	(48	)	(2,828	)	(3,671	)
	(1,047	)	3,253		(1,436	)	4,706

Expenses assignable to investment income were insignificant. There were no significant investments as of September 30, 2017 that did not produce income during the year.

For the nine months ended September 30, 2017, investment and other losses – net included $0.8 million of net realized loss due to an increase in the fair value of a contingent consideration liability related to a prior acquisition and $0.5 million of net realized loss from the sale of subsidiaries. For the nine months ended September 30, 2016, investments and other gains - net included $1.6 million of net realized gains due to a net decrease in the fair values of contingent consideration liabilities associated with prior year acquisitions, $1.2 million of realized gain on a cost-basis investment transaction and $2.9 million of net realized gains from the sale of investments available-for-sale, partially offset by $1.3 million of office closure costs.

Proceeds from sales of investments available-for-sale are as follows:



	Three Months Ended September 30,		Nine Months Ended September 30,
	2017	2016	2017	2016
	($000 omitted)
Proceeds from sales of investments available-for-sale	5,878	16,839	55,533	49,666