4. GOODWILL

Many of the former owners and staff of acquired funeral homes have provided high quality service to families for generations. The resulting loyalty often represents a substantial portion of the value of a funeral business. The excess of the purchase price over the fair value of net identifiable assets acquired, as determined by management in business acquisition transactions accounted for as purchases, is recorded as goodwill.

The following table presents the changes in goodwill in the accompanying Consolidated Balance Sheets (in thousands):


	September 30, 2011
Goodwill at beginning of year	$	183,324
Acquisitions and changes in previous estimates		7,106

Goodwill at end of period	$	190,430

Changes in previous estimates are related to adjustments for inventory values.