NOTE 4. GOODWILL AND INTANGIBLE ASSETS

Goodwill of $25.1 million at December 31, 2018 represents the excess of total acquisition costs over the fair market value of net assets acquired and liabilities assumed in a business combination. To assist in the Company’s determination of the purchase price allocation for the Monarch Casino Black Hawk, the Company engaged a third-party valuation firm regarding the assets acquired and liabilities assumed in its acquisition.

Intangible assets consist of the following at December 31 (in thousands except years):


	2018		2017
Customer list
Total intangible assets	$	10,490	$	10,490
Less accumulated amortization:		(7,786)		(6,621)
Intangible assets, net	$	2,704	$	3,869
Weighted-average life in years		2.3		3.3

Customer lists were valued at $10.5 million, representing the value associated with the future potential customer revenue production and are being amortized on a straight-line basis over nine years.

Amortization expense of $1.2 million was recognized for each of the years ended December 31, 2018, 2017 and 2016. Estimated amortization expenses for the years ending December 31, 2019 through 2021 are as follows (in thousands):


Year	Expense
2019	$	1,165
2020		1,165
2021		374
Total	$	2,704

Intangible assets were valued using the income approach. The Multi-Period Excess Earning Method was used to value the customer list by capitalizing the future cash flows attributable to the customers based upon their expected future mortality dispersion function. The expected revenue from the existing client was estimated by applying a 24.0% attrition rate. To calculate excess earnings attributable to the customer list, the required return on other contributory assets such as tangible assets and identified intangible assets were deducted to estimate income associated with the customer list. The future excess earnings were discounted to the present value by a risk-adjusted discount rate of 12.0% in order to determine the fair value of the customer list.