28
/ September
2011
BV appraisers see ‘bigger issues’ than competing credentials
Are competing credentials in the BV profession driving down fees as well as “dumbing down” the work? Last week’s item, “Does the BV profession suffer from ‘interservice rivalry’?” elicited these thoughtful responses:
- Michael A. Gould (Hunter Group CPA): “The bigger issue is the various standards that exist among the various organizations and USPAP; in particular, those that relate to development and reporting in litigation matters, calculation reports as allowed by SSVS, and review reports under Standard 3 of USPAP.”
- Scott Leslie, CPA/ABV, ABV: “What I see as the elephant in the room is in the area of fees. Fees for BV are in the tank when you have less qualified credential holders bidding down pricing and when the quality of work to the bill-payer is not that important. There are multiple regulators, each with different rules that dumb down the ultimate work quality, making competition a credibility- and a fee- destroying mechanism.”
- Jerry Karsh (Karsh Consulting, P.C.) says he doesn’t “knock the credentials but the people parading them. Credibility comes from your work-product –not the initials after your name.”
- Louis Pereira (Merrimack Business Appraisers) would like to see the various organizations (AICPA, NACVA, IBA, and ASA) strengthen the credentialing requirements with programs of testing, work experience, and peer review of actual multiple work products that demonstrate the full range of skills.
- Bruce W. Thee (Bruce W Thee & Associates) would like to see “the development of a BV designation with high education, experience, and training requirements that didn’t dummy down its standards for the sake of larger enrollment and more money for the sponsoring organization.”
- Leslie Avener, CPA*/ABV, ASA, CBA, CVA) notes: “It is also darned EXPENSIVE to have all those credentials!”