AFA and RSIG 82nd Annual Conference – Louisville, KY

23 June 2018 – Allied Finance Adjusters (AFA) held their 82^nd annual conference with the Recovery Specialist Insurance Group (RSIG) at the Galt House in Louisville, Kentucky on June 19^th– 21^st with an attendance of both AFA and RSIG members numbering at 492. Other than, the usual, well crafted, presented and educational content, this was a critical meeting with broad reaching implications for the industry as a whole.

In a closed door meeting of AFA members, the decision not to move forward with the proposed ARA merger was made by a majority vote of the members. While the AFA decided not to proceed with the merger under the current proposed conditions, they have stated their willingness to reengage in discussions at a later time.

As always, the training sessions were both educational and entertaining featuring presentations by Michael Howk of the RSIG presenting information on the CFPB (excuse me BCFP), Attorney Machelle Morris provided her always illuminating case law review of legal trends and situations in the repossession industry that affect agents and agency nationwide.

The always entertaining, Michele Stuart of JAG Investigations, provided a very deep dive into Internet Profiling & Electronic Skip tracing. I just attended one of her presentations last April and the material was all new. I’ve said it before, but her presentations are a must attend for anyone in the collections, repossession and skip tracing community.

One extremely valuable training session brought to the event thanks to RSIG, was presented by Deborah McGinn-Tytler of Biz Master Consulting, whose modeling of repossession agency profitability and basic business accounting provided a working business reporting model for the attendees and RSIG members to identify profitability on price point based upon generally accepted accounting practices (GAAP). The working spreadsheets for this model are available on the RSIG website for downloading for RSIG members only.

While the daytime sessions were educating, the evenings were entertaining. The Recovery Agents Benefit Fund (RABF) raised $29,474 for agents and the families affected by injury or death in the repossession industry through the annual memorabilia auction and raffle ticket sales for a wheel lift donated by the always generous Dynamic Manufacturing. American Recovery Services (ARS) donated $5,000 and over 15 agency owners donated $500 each to join the “$500 Club.”

The last meeting was an open floor discussion on the “Evolution of a Changing Environment” in the repossession industry where members shared the microphones exchanging ideas, thoughts and proposals for better relations with their fellow local agencies and strategies to try to improve agency profitability and unity.

The closing ceremonies and awards presentations dinner was a blast! For those of you at my table with Ron Keys of American recovery Specialists of Florida, thank you all for the most laughing I’d done in a long time. An outstanding dinner of steak and lobster was enjoyed by all before the joint AFA and RSIG awards presentations to their members.

Just another great conference brought to the members of the AFA and RSIG. Great job everyone and I know everyone looks forward to another stellar event next year!