Business valuation certifications: what do you know about the NACVA AVA cert?

Has anyone heard of the accredited valuation analyst (AVA) certification offered by the National Association of Certified Valuators and Analysts (NACVA)?

Here's the link: http://www.nacva.com/certifications/c_ava.asp

I'm at a boutique Silicon Valley consulting firm and my boss is sponsoring me for this cert. I don't know anyone that has it, nor can I find much about the test from anywhere besides the NACVA website. I'm curious if anyone on WSO has taken the test... I'd really like you to weigh in. I realize this probably isn't going to advance my career in any kind of measurable way, and therefore I want to spend as little as time as possible studying. Passing is a score of >70%, and there is a 90% pass rate of those who sit for the test.

Who on WSO can help me bang out a pass on this test?

 

This certification and a similar one from the ASA are easy enough to get. The test is easy and the only pain in the butt is the case study. I believe you should also have a solid base of actual valuation work as a work requirement. It will be very helpful in advancing your career if you stay in valuations and is pretty much a must if you intend to do any type of litigation, trust and estate tax work or higher end merger and acquisition valuation work

 

Have you taken either of the tests? Any outside practice materials you found helpful? I've really only gotten heavily into studying over the last week, but I'd really like to take the test a month from now...

As far as career advancements, maybe you're right that this will be somewhat useful to fall back on. I doubt I'll be in professional services much longer, though. Next jump will most likely be to a cloud computing startup.

 

I've completed the NACVA AVA certification. I took the 5 day course and the test at the end of the week so it was pretty easy. That's probably where the 90% pass rate is from. There is no need for outside practice materials. The course material (same for the self-study people) they give you is all you need. The test a month from now should be beyond easy. The only tricky part is some of the IRS cases which is just memorization or maybe the questions on the USPAP requirements for written reports.

I don't think it will be useful as a fall back as its really only pertains to valuators or small IB boutiques that do fairness opinions

 

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