how is goodwill used in investing 
evaluating goodwill is a challenging but critical skill for many investors it can be difficult to tell whether the goodwill claimed on a balance sheet is justified when analyzing a company s balance sheet investors should scrutinize what is behind its stated goodwill to determine whether that goodwill may need to be written off in the future in some cases the opposite can also occur with investors believing that the true value of a company s goodwill is greater than that stated on its balance sheet 