AICPA COUNCIL VOTES TO APPROVE VALUATION SPECIALTY

At its fall meeting in Chicago, the AICPA Council voted to approve the establishment of a second specialty designation. Joining the ranks of the CPA/PFS designation will be the CPA/ABV. ABV stands for accredited in business valuation. The requirements for obtaining this business valuation specialty are to have performed 10 valuation engagements prior to applying for the designation, passing an examination in business valuation, maintaining an experience requirement of completing at least five valuations in each subsequent three-year period, and demonstrating 60 hours of valuation related continuing education over every three-year period.

The primary purpose for creating the designation is to enable the CPA to demonstrate competence in valuations in the marketplace and to compete with other valuation designations possessed by non-CPA valuation specialists. The primary arguments against creating more speciality designations are that they water down the prestige of the CPA certificate and reduce the ability of nonaccredited CPAs to compete, even though they possess the knowledge and experience.

It will be interesting to see how CPAs respond to this new opportunity. Experience with the PFS designation has shown little interest on the part of CPAs to make the effort to achieve the credential. To date, only 1,650 AICPA members can add those three letters to their CPA tag line. *