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Commitments and Contingencies
 9 Months Ended
Sep. 30, 2012
Commitments and Contingencies

9. Commitments and Contingencies

The following supplements and amends our discussion set forth in Note 14 (“Commitments and Contingencies”) to item 8 of the Form 10-K filed by the Company for the year ended December 31, 2011. No other matters were reportable during the period ended September 30, 2012.

Legal—Many aspects of the Company’s business involve substantial risks of liability. In the normal course of business, the Company has been named as defendant or co-defendant in various legal actions, including arbitrations, class actions, and other litigation, creating substantial exposure. Certain of the actual or threatened legal matters include claims for substantial compensatory and/or punitive damages or claims for indeterminate amounts of damages. These proceedings arise primarily from securities brokerage, asset management and investment banking activities.

For legal proceedings where there is at least a reasonable possibility that a loss or an additional loss may be incurred, the Company estimates a range of aggregate loss in excess of amounts accrued of $0 to approximately $180.5 million at September 30, 2012, which has been reduced from an estimated range of $0 to approximately $247.5 million at December 31, 2011. This estimated aggregate range is based upon currently available information for those legal proceedings in which the Company is involved, where an estimate for such losses can be made. For certain cases, the Company does not believe that an estimate can currently be made. The foregoing estimate is based on various factors, including the varying stages of the proceedings (including the fact that many are currently in preliminary stages), the numerous yet-unresolved issues in many of the proceedings and the attendant uncertainty of the various potential outcomes of such proceedings. Accordingly, the Company’s estimate will change from time to time, and actual losses may be more than the current estimate.