GOODWILL AND OTHER INTANGIBLE ASSETS

Goodwill

The Company performed its annual assessment of goodwill and determined there was no impairment as of December 31, 2016. During the third quarter of 2015, the Company determined that sufficient indicators of potential impairment existed to require an interim goodwill impairment analysis for the U.S. consumer loan operations reporting unit, which is no longer a reporting unit for goodwill impairment testing. These indicators included, among others, the impacts of recently enacted and additional proposed local, state and federal regulatory restrictions affecting short-term and long-term profitability expectations for payday and title lending products, the Company’s long-term ongoing strategy to reduce non-core consumer lending operations along with significant deterioration in payday lending market conditions. Due to the aforementioned indicators, the Company concluded that it was more likely than not that the fair value of the U.S. consumer loan operations reporting unit was less than the carrying value. Therefore, a $7,913 goodwill impairment charge was recorded, which is included as goodwill impairment - U.S. consumer loan operations in the accompanying consolidated statements of operations.

Changes in the carrying value of goodwill by segment were as follows:



December 31, 2016	U.S. operations segment			Latin America operations segment			Total
Balance, beginning of year	$	222,901		$	72,708		$	295,609
Merger and other acquisitions (see Note 3)	523,303			20,413			543,716
Effect of foreign currency translation	—			(8,276		)	(8,276		)
Other adjustments	—			102			102
Balance, end of year	$	746,204		$	84,947		$	831,151

December 31, 2015
Balance, beginning of year	$	203,160		$	73,722		$	276,882
Merger and other acquisitions	27,654			3,039			30,693
Goodwill impairment - U.S. consumer loan operations	(7,913		)	—			(7,913		)
Effect of foreign currency translation	—			(4,976		)	(4,976		)
Other adjustments	—			923			923
Balance, end of year	$	222,901		$	72,708		$	295,609

Definite-Lived Intangible Assets

The following table summarizes the components of gross and net definite-lived intangibles assets subject to amortization as of December 31, 2016 and 2015:



	As of December 31,
	2016							2015
	Gross Carrying Amount		Accumulated Amortization			Net Carrying Amount		Gross Carrying Amount		Accumulated Amortization			Net Carrying Amount
Customer relationships	$	24,452	$	(8,861	)	$	15,591	$	9,665	$	(5,237	)	$	4,428
Executive non-compete agreements	8,700		(1,450		)	7,250		—		—			—
	$	33,152	$	(10,311	)	$	22,841	$	9,665	$	(5,237	)	$	4,428

The customer relationships are generally amortized using an accelerated amortization method that reflects the future cash flows expected from the returning pawn customers. The executive non-compete agreements are being amortized over a straight-line basis over the life of the executive non-compete agreements.

Amortization expense for definite-lived intangible assets was $5,241, $1,799 and $1,529 for the years ended December 31, 2016, 2015 and 2014, respectively. The remaining weighted-average amortization period for customer relationships, executive non-compete agreements and total definite-lived intangible assets is 1.7, 0.9 and 1.4 years, respectively. Estimated future amortization expense is as follows:



Fiscal
2017	$	10,687
2018	6,522
2019	2,583
2020	2,049
2021	1,000
	$	22,841

Indefinite-Lived Intangible Assets

The Company performed its annual assessment of indefinite-lived intangible assets and determined there was no impairment as of December 31, 2016 and 2015. Indefinite-lived intangible assets as of December 31, 2016 and 2015, consist of the following:



	As of December 31,
	2016		2015
Trade names	$	46,300	$	—
Pawn licenses ⁽¹⁾	34,083		1,753
Franchise agreements related to check-cashing operation	1,250		—
	$	81,633	$	1,753


⁽¹⁾	Costs to renew licenses with indefinite lives are expensed as incurred and recorded in store operating expenses in the consolidated statements of income.