In its ninth year of publication, the 2017 U.S. Goodwill Impairment Study by Duff & Phelps and the Financial Executives Research Foundation (FERF) examines general and industry goodwill impairment trends of 8,400+ U.S. publicly-traded companies through December 2016. The 2017 Study also reports the results of this year’s annual survey of FEI members, which continues to track the level of usage of the optional qualitative goodwill impairment test (a.k.a. “Step 0”) by its members.
The accounting model for goodwill under U.S. GAAP has been simplified through the issuance of Accounting Standards Update (ASU) No. 2017-04, Intangibles — Goodwill and Other (Topic 350): Simplifying the Test for Goodwill Impairment, in January 2017. The new guidance eliminated Step 2 of the quantitative two-step test, and changed the computation of goodwill impairment (if any) to be the based on the difference between the fair value and carrying amount of the reporting unit.
The 2017 Study features an interview conducted by FERF of Gary Roland, Managing Director at Duff & Phelps, discussing the highlights of this year’s survey, including FEI members’ expectations regarding the impact of the new ASU on their goodwill impairment testing.