Investments in Affiliated Companies

6 Months Ended

Jun. 30, 2016

Investments in affiliated companies represent our investment in non-consolidated domestic and foreign entities. These entities are in businesses similar to ours, such as credit reporting, credit scoring and credit monitoring services. These investments are included in other assets in the consolidated balance sheets.

We use the equity method to account for investments in affiliates where we have at least a 20% ownership interest or where we are able to exercise significant influence. For these investments, we adjust the carrying value for our proportionate share of the affiliates’ earnings, losses and distributions, as well as for purchases and sales of our ownership interest.

We use the cost method to account for nonmarketable investments in affiliates where we have less than a 20% ownership interest or where we are not able to exercise significant influence. For these investments, we adjust the carrying value for purchases and sales of our ownership interests.

For all investments, we adjust the carrying value if we determine that an other-than-temporary impairment has occurred. There were no other-than-temporary impairments of investments in affiliated companies during the three and six months ended June 30, 2016 or 2015.

Investments in affiliated companies consisted of the following:



(in millions)	June 30, 2016		December 31, 2015
Total equity method investments	$	40.8	$	45.5
Total cost method investments	20.2		5.0
Total investments in affiliated companies	$	61.0	$	50.5

Earnings from equity method investments, which are included in non-operating income and expense, and dividends received from equity method investments consisted of the following:



(in millions)	Three Months Ended June 30, 2016		Three Months Ended June 30, 2015		Six Months Ended June 30, 2016		Six Months Ended June 30, 2015
Earnings from equity method investments	$	2.0	$	2.3	$	3.9	$	4.6
Dividends received from equity method investments	$	5.2	$	0.2	$	5.6	$	1.6

Dividends received from cost method investments for the three and six months ended June 30, 2016 was $0.6 million in each period and for the three and six months ended June 30, 2015 was $0.3 million in each period.