Thursday, January 8, 2009

AADMO to Hold Workgroups to Develop Standardized Documents, Disclosures and Contract Provisions for Credit Counseling Agencies

The American Association of Debt Management Organizations (AADMO), the credit counseling industry's largest trade association, will convene workgroups to develop standardized documents, disclosures and contract provisions for the credit counseling industry.

(PRWEB) January 8, 2009 -- The American Association of Debt Management Organizations (AADMO), the credit counseling industry's largest trade association, will convene workgroups to develop standardized documents, disclosures and contract provisions for the credit counseling industry.

The regulators of several states have expressed concern over the variety and creativity of documents and disclosures used by the credit counseling industry. It was stated that the development of standardized or uniform documents for many areas of licensing applications, renewals and mandated consumer disclosures would ease the regulatory burden on both the industry and regulators.

"State regulators have asked AADMO to convene working groups to achieve two goals: 1) develop standardized documents for submission to regulators; 2) develop standardized disclosures for consumers. The industry has been tasked through AADMO to develop uniform consumer disclosures, materials, and contract provisions that consumers can rely on in working with credit counseling agencies", said Mark Guimond, Executive Director of the AADMO.

"We believe that this work product will yield considerable cost savings for the industry, save time and resources for regulators and better promote uniformity", added Guimond.

The workgroups are slated as follows:

Document Standardization Working Group
AADMO will conduct a working group to develop uniform documents and standardized documents for the credit counseling industry to submit to regulators for review and acceptance. AADMO will work to finalize the documents and seek implementation and use during the last half of the year - the busy license renewal season.

Disclosure/Contract Provision Standardization Working Group
This working group will develop standard disclosures, materials and contract provisions. The group will create disclosures to help consumers to understand their participation with credit counseling, delivery methods for these disclosures and standardized plain language contract provisions.

INITIAL WORKING GROUP MEETINGS
The Document Standardization Working Group will meet in Houston, TX on Thursday, February 12 from 9:00 AM to Noon and 1:00 PM to 2:00 PM and the Disclosure/Contract Provision Standardization Working Group will meet on Thursday, February 12 from 1:00 PM to 5:00 PM and 9:00 AM to 11:00 AM on Friday February 13.

In preparation for the Working Groups and Committee meetings, AADMO will hold a webinar on January 13 at 1:00 PM/CST to detail our expectations, processes and delivery procedures for this monumental project.

ABOUT AADMO
AADMO is the largest trade association for the credit counseling and debt management industry. Nationwide, the majority of licensed and legally operating credit counseling agencies are members of AADMO.

AADMO is an industry education and advocacy organization the mission of which is to promote and ensure the continued operation and viability of credit counseling and debt management organizations.

AADMO members are consumer credit counseling agencies, debt management organizations, credit counselors, personal finance educators, credit and debt information educators, bankruptcy pre-filing counselors, bankruptcy pre-discharge educators, consumer lawyers and many others.

AADMO is the only trade association to have held state law compliance workshops with the New York State Banking Department and the California Department of Corporations upon enactment of their respective laws governing credit counseling. AADMO is also the only trade association for the industry to publish a formal summary of state laws that has been reviewed by state regulators.

For more information visit www.AADMO.org or call 281-361-2325.

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[Via Legal / Law]

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