at december 31 , 2012 , the gross reserves for a&e losses were comprised of $ 138449 thousand representing case reserves reported by ceding companies , $ 90637 thousand representing additional case reserves established by the company on assumed reinsurance claims , $ 36667 thousand representing case reserves established by the company on direct excess insurance claims , including mt . mckinley , and $ 177068 thousand representing ibnr reserves . with respect to asbestos only , at december 31 , 2012 , the company had gross asbestos loss reserves of $ 422849 thousand , or 95.5% ( 95.5 % ) , of total a&e reserves , of which $ 339654 thousand was for assumed business and $ 83195 thousand was for direct business . future policy benefit reserve . activity in the reserve for future policy benefits is summarized for the periods indicated: .
what is the net change in reserve for future policy benefits during 2012?
4 . fair value the company 2019s fixed maturity and equity securities are primarily managed by third party investment asset managers . the investment asset managers obtain prices from nationally recognized pricing services . these services seek to utilize market data and observations in their evaluation process . they use pricing applications that vary by asset class and incorporate available market information and when fixed maturity securities do not trade on a daily basis the services will apply available information through processes such as benchmark curves , benchmarking of like securities , sector groupings and matrix pricing . in addition , they use model processes , such as the option adjusted spread model to develop prepayment and interest rate scenarios for securities that have prepayment features . in limited instances where prices are not provided by pricing services or in rare instances when a manager may not agree with the pricing service , price quotes on a non-binding basis are obtained from investment brokers . the investment asset managers do not make any changes to prices received from either the pricing services or the investment brokers . in addition , the investment asset managers have procedures in place to review the reasonableness of the prices from the service providers and may request verification of the prices . in addition , the company continually performs analytical reviews of price changes and tests the prices on a random basis to an independent pricing source . no material variances were noted during these price validation procedures . in limited situations , where financial markets are inactive or illiquid , the company may use its own assumptions about future cash flows and risk-adjusted discount rates to determine fair value . the company made no such adjustments at december 31 , 2012 and 2011 . the company internally manages a small public equity portfolio which had a fair value at december 31 , 2012 of $ 117602 thousand and all prices were obtained from publically published sources . equity securities in u.s . denominated currency are categorized as level 1 , quoted prices in active markets for identical assets , since the securities are actively traded on an exchange and prices are based on quoted prices from the exchange . equity securities traded on foreign exchanges are categorized as level 2 due to potential foreign exchange adjustments to fair or market value . fixed maturity securities are generally categorized as level 2 , significant other observable inputs , since a particular security may not have traded but the pricing services are able to use valuation models with observable market inputs such as interest rate yield curves and prices for similar fixed maturity securities in terms of issuer , maturity and seniority . valuations that are derived from techniques in which one or more of the significant inputs are unobservable ( including assumptions about risk ) are categorized as level 3 .