. 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 business. The excess of the purchase price over the fair value of net identifiable assets acquired and liabilities assumed, as determined by management in business acquisition transactions accounted for as purchases, is recorded as goodwill.

We performed our 2015 annual impairment test of goodwill using information as of August 31, 2015. Under current guidance, we are permitted to first assess qualitative factors to determine whether it is more-likely-than-not that the fair value of a reporting unit is less than its carrying amount as a basis for determining whether it is necessary to perform the two-step goodwill impairment test. For our 2013 annual impairment test, we performed the two-step impairment test. For our 2014 and 2015 annual impairment tests, we performed qualitative reviews. Our intent is to perform the two-step test at least once every three years unless certain indicators or events suggest otherwise. See Part II, Item 7, Overview of Critical Accounting Policies and Estimates and Item 8. Financial Statements and Supplementary Data, Note 1, to the Consolidated Financial Statements in our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2014, for a discussion of the methodology used for the annual goodwill impairment test. For our 2015 annual impairment test, we performed a qualitative review and concluded that there was not an impairment to goodwill.

The following table presents the changes in goodwill on our Consolidated Balance Sheets during the nine months ended September 30, 2015 (in thousands):




Goodwill as of December 31, 2014	$	257,442
Increase in goodwill related to acquisitions	3,849
Goodwill as of September 30, 2015	$	261,291

The $3.8 million increase in goodwill related to acquisitions represents the goodwill recorded in connection with the funeral home acquired in February 2015.