Dear ARA Member-
Since the announcement of the ARA and NFA merger and the combining interests of the ARMS program and Reliance CO-OP, we’ve been asked many questions from the membership. The purpose of this post is to clarify some important points.
In a CO-OP, each member is an equal owner with an equal say in the direction of the business. The ARA Board negotiated a deal so that every ARA member has a 90-day window to have their initial $2500 investment in the new NFA matched with a similar $2500 investment from the old NFA treasury. This allows everyone to be an equal investor in the CO-OP with a similar investment of $5000. In order to take advantage of this matching program, you must sign up by August 13.
For those of you in a smaller market, this is an extremely generous offer and makes the idea of being an owner an even better proposition. In today’s recovery business environment, the idea of having an industry-owned forwarding/facilitation entity that meets the compliance standards of every lender in the country is a very desirable product. We must continue to build our network of the most well trained and compliant agencies in the industry. This means we can offer a client the choice and coverage area they require while doing so in a not-for-profit business model. This also means that you, the CO-OP member, will receive the highest recovery fees, as a percentage, in the industry.
The second point I want to address is the question about account distribution in areas where there are multiple agencies. All accounts are distributed equally between the member companies in a given area. As a CO-OP member, you have the right to see the complete accounting of every account received by the CO-OP and to whom it was assigned. We are developing a performance-scoring model that will take into consideration the type of accounts assigned to your company so that everyone is rated equally on similar types of work. This will be used as a tool for assignment distribution. Assignments will be distributed fairly, but performance will be a factor. It is this performance metric that will also help differentiate our members from the rest of the industry.
The Board of the new NFA is committed to uniting our members in order to build an organization with the sole purpose of providing the lending community a superior recovery agent network that is vested in its success. Once we begin to believe and trust in each other, we can attain the goals set forth in our strategy. With shared commitment and conviction, we have an opportunity to change our industry for the better forever.
Please join us in building something special for all of us to share in and help us turn a dream into a reality.
To register for NFA, please call me at: (518) 346-6286 ext. 1959 or email: ChrisDunleavy@TCARInc.com or contact Darren Frame, Executive Director, at: (623) 516-1018 or email: darren@nfacoop.com.
Sincerely,
Chris Dunleavy
CEO of NFA
