Effective this coming Monday, April 1, the National Association of Certified Valuators and Analysts will merge its Accredited Valuation Analyst credential into the Certified Valuation Analyst credential, leaving the latter—the CVA—as the organization’s only BV designation.

NACVA has been discussing the merger of credentials “for over a decade,” says CEO Parnell Black in an announcement, which also explains the logistics of implementing the decision for accredited members. “There are many, many good reasons for merging the two credentials and not one good reason against it.”  In 2009, NACVA’s board backed the merger and circulated a memo and members’ survey in support (since updated), but when the country’s economic recession intervened, “we simply felt it was not the right time to make significant changes,” Black says.

“But this merger needs to happen, and it needs to happen now,” he adds. “All the good reasons and benefits derived from merging the AVA into the CVA that existed in 2009 still exist today, but are only accentuated due to the passage of time.”

“Both CVAs and AVAs regularly are finding the need to explain the difference between two designations, whether it be in court, while giving presentations, or explaining their credential to a client,” says Marc Bello, chair of NACVA’s Executive Advisory Board, in a separate report. “This problem is compounded in firms with both CVA and AVA designated members. This is a hurdle many members find annoying and even slightly embarrassing as it makes little sense and is hard to explain.”