fair value hierarchy

ASC 962-325 governs how a defined contribution pension plan reports its investments and insurance contracts. The core rule is that plan investments (including derivatives) are reported at fair value under Topic 820, with two exceptions: fully benefit-responsive investment contracts are reported at contract value, and insurance contracts as defined in Subtopic 944-20 are presented the same way as in the plan's ERISA Form 5500 filing (fair value or contract value). It also prescribes trade-date recording, presentation of investments by general type, master trust disclosures, and disclosures about benefit-responsive contracts.

ASC 820-10 defines fair value as the price that would be received to sell an asset or paid to transfer a liability in an orderly transaction between market participants at the measurement date (an exit price), and provides a single framework for measuring it plus related disclosures. Fair value is a market-based, not entity-specific, measurement, determined in the principal (or, absent one, most advantageous) market using assumptions market participants would use, maximizing observable and minimizing unobservable inputs. Inputs are categorized in a three-level hierarchy (Level 1 quoted prices, Level 2 other observable inputs, Level 3 unobservable inputs), with the whole measurement classified at the lowest level input significant to it.