Note 4. Goodwill and Other Intangible Assets

12 Months Ended

Dec. 31, 2016

Notes to Financial Statements

Goodwill and Other Intangible Assets

The components of intangible assets are as follows:

	December 31, 2016
		Gross Carrying Amount		Accumulated Amortization			Net Carrying Amount
Customer lists	$	1,770,000	$	(1,769,666	)	$	334
Customer relationships		1,747,000		(810,810	)		936,190
Proprietary software		782,000		(680,414	)		101,586
Trademarks – definite-lived		173,000		(62,892	)		110,108
Trademarks – indefinite-lived		232,000		—			232,000
Total intangible assets	$	4,704,000	$	(3,323,782	)	$	1,380,218

	December 31, 2015
		Gross Carrying Amount		Accumulated Amortization			Net Carrying Amount
Customer lists	$	1,770,000	$	(1,408,920	)	$	361,080
Customer relationships		1,747,000		(564,810	)		1,182,190
Proprietary software		782,000		(526,508	)		255,492
Trademarks - definite-lived		173,000		(12,466	)		160,534
Trademarks – indefinite-lived		232,000		—			232,000
Total intangible assets	$	4,704,000	$	(2,512,704	)	$	2,191,296

The Company performed its annual assessment for impairment of goodwill and intangible assets and determined there was no impairment as of and for the year ended December 31, 2016.  During the fourth quarter of 2015, the Company elected not to renew certain trademarks purchased in conjunction with the acquisition of PIR. These trademarks had an allocated value of $148,680 and the write-off of this value is included in Impairment loss on intangible assets on the Consolidated Statements of Net Income for the year ended December 31, 2015. Additionally, as part of the Company’s annual review of impairment of goodwill and intangible assets, the Company determined the remaining trademarks purchased as part of the acquisition of PIR were no longer indefinite-lived assets as the Company plans to integrate and rebrand the associated trademarks with Issuer Direct. As a result of this determination, the Company was required to perform a goodwill impairment assessment. Due to lower future projections of revenue associated with our ARS service and a shortened useful life of the trademarks, this assessment resulted in an impairment loss of $398,320, which is also included in Impairment loss on intangible assets in the Consolidated Statements of Income for the year ended December 31, 2015.

The amortization of intangible assets is a charge to operating expenses and totaled $811,078 and $995,338 in the years ended 2016 and 2015, respectively.

The future amortization of the identifiable intangible assets is as follows:

Years Ending December 31:
	2017	$	332,964
	2018		322,733
	2019		286,042
	2020		178,600
	2021		27,879
	Total	$	1,148,218

Our goodwill balance of $2,241,872 at December 31, 2016 and 2015, was related to our acquisition of Basset Press in July 2007, the acquisition of PIR in 2013 and the acquisition of Accesswire in 2014. We conducted our annual impairment analyses as of October 1, of 2016 and 2015 and determined that no goodwill was impaired.