AADR Debt Resolution Dispatch

Welcome to the American Association for Debt Resolution’s quarterly newsletter, which includes AADR policy updates, the latest on our advocacy efforts, and more. Get daily updates by engaging with us on Twitter, LinkedIn, and Facebook.

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This is no April Fools! On Tuesday, April 2, AADR launched a brand new members-only portal, The Hub, an exclusive gateway to AADR resources, efforts, and insights. How can you access this tool? Each member company leader and employee in our database should have received an email communication with setup instructions. If you did not receive this email, or you have team members who would like access to the member portal, please contact Karin Stragand (Karin@aa4dr.org). I hope you enjoy this exclusive access to content created just for AADR members.

Please join us in thanking our generous sponsors:

April is Financial Literacy Month and in anticipation of this important milestone, AADR is pleased to announce our continued commitment to support the Council for Economic Education, or CEE. A national nonprofit, CEE’s mission is to equip K-12 students and their parents or guardians with the knowledge and tools to make better decisions for themselves, their families, and their communities.

AADR has pledged to raise $100,000 for CEE this year. We hope you will join our efforts by contributing here. Our partnership will support:

• Year-round professional development opportunities, including training for teachers new to the subjects of financial literacy and economics;

• CEE’s annual educator conference, which reaches approximately 500 participants each year and provides teachers with tools and lessons they can bring back to their classrooms;

• CEE’s National Personal Finance Challenge, a nationwide competition that offers high school students an exciting way to build and demonstrate their own financial literacy skills, and 

• Other advocacy efforts and events like the FinEd50 coalition, which works to enact personal finance graduation requirements in all states. 

Like AADR, CEE hopes for bright financial futures for today’s young people, where they can confidently navigate the financial tools and resources available to them.

On Tuesday, April 2, we kicked off our fundraising efforts for 2024 with a webinar with CEE leaders. Thank you to CFTPay for sponsoring this important conversation! 

AADR Welcomes Two New Board Members.



Lori Lasher and Mohit Sofat recently joined AADR’s Executive Board of Directors. 

AADR has welcomed two distinguished leaders in the debt resolution industry to its Executive Board of Directors. Each has been active with AADR throughout the years and brings a wealth of experience to the board. 

Lori Lasher is executive vice president, chief legal officer, chief compliance officer, and general counsel at JG Wentworth, where she oversees legal, compliance, and governance matters. She is also actively engaged in philanthropy, serving as a Trustee of Project Home, which provides affordable housing and other opportunities to formerly homeless persons and families. 

Mohit Sofat is vice president of operations for enterprise payments and general manager of CFTPay at Priority Technology Holdings. With more than 20 years of experience in the banking and financial sector, Sofat has successfully led CFTPay’s business operations for over a decade, managing a team of more than 250 professionals in the United States and abroad.

Read more about these two leaders here. 

It is time to implement the new AADR standards! Do not delay: April 1 was the deadline for member companies to implement the new AADR Consumer Complaints and Marketing and Advertising Standards. These two new standards increase transparency, create a shared industry way of working that consumers and lawmakers can rely on, and go above and beyond state and federal expectations. They were created by member companies for member companies.

Have you completed your 2024 training? We are already at the end of the first quarter, so it is time to make sure your team has either participated in, or is scheduled to participate in, the required annual training for their role. The AADR expectation in the BSI audit is that member companies ensure their teams receive the requisite training on time and that documentation can be presented to substantiate successful employee participation.

Reap the value—you have earned it. The value of AADR accreditation is real. The AADR accreditation badge demonstrates your company’s commitment to living by AADR standards and taking a consumer-first approach to business. It sets your company apart from others in the industry. Take a moment to review your company’s website and marketing material to ensure you have the AADR accreditation badge proudly displayed.

Questions about compliance? Contact Stacey Silva. 

The U.S. Senate and House of Representatives and state legislatures across the country are deep into their 2024 sessions, and the AADR government relations team continues to work to preserve and expand consumers’ access to debt resolution products and services.

At the federal level, Congress is finishing up its months-long work on fiscal year 2024 appropriations bills and will soon get to work on next year’s budget. On the revenue side, the House approved a bipartisan tax bill that would expand the Child Tax Credit (CTC) and extend several business tax provisions. While Senate Finance Committee Chair Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) and House Ways and Means Committee Chair Jason Smith (R-Mo.) had hoped for speedy Senate passage, the bill has run into stiff GOP opposition. Specifically, Republicans want to pare back the CTC, a provision that would help families who find themselves in financial turmoil. 

With tax filing season nearly complete, AADR also continues to advocate for an important change to the federal tax code. Under current law, Americans who successfully resolve their debts for an amount less than they owe must declare the difference as income on their tax returns. As a first step to reversing this unjust provision, AADR has asked the Joint Committee on Taxation to study the budgetary impact of a potential repeal. Stay tuned for updates. 

State updates:

• In California, AADR is awaiting the publication of the Department of Financial Protection and Innovation’s (DPFI) final rule on debt resolution company registration and data submission requirements. AADR submitted comments to DFPI regarding its latest draft rule and continues to offer its subject matter expertise to the agency.
• In Colorado, AADR continues to support an unamended version of HB 24-1251 as it moves through the legislative process. This legislation would extend the Debt Management Services Act for an additional 11 years and make additional recordkeeping requirement changes. AADR provided testimony to the House Judiciary Committee and the measure was voted out of the House Judiciary Committee unamended. 
• AADR has begun outreach to Illinois policymakers to create a more favorable environment for the industry. Our goal is to pass a reform bill in the next few years. 
• In New Jersey, we are in the process of getting our bill reintroduced in both chambers of the statehouse. In the Assembly, we have eight cosponsors and, in the upper chamber, Sen. Nellie Pou (D) has agreed to sponsor the bill again and has committed to bringing it up for a vote in the Senate Commerce Committee in May. 
• In New York, we have been working with the state Assembly Consumer Protection Committee Chair Nily Rozic (D) to educate her on why the attorney’s “budget planner” bill is unworkable for consumers and our industry. We provided a memo to Rep. Rozic earlier this year explaining AADR’s opposition to the legislation, and our team continues to engage with Assembly members. 
• In North Carolina, a short session will conclude in April. We remain vigilant about the possibility of Rep. Julia Howard (R) reintroducing her bill but feel confident our allies in the statehouse will continue to block it during this very brief session. 
• In Ohio, AADR continues to advocate for the passage of SB 68, which would create a framework for the industry to operate by creating a licensing regime and aligning state statutes with federal requirements. The bill is in committee awaiting a vote before moving to the floor of the Senate. The committee will meet in April after returning after a short break.
• In Oregon and Washington, state legislatures have wrapped their work for the year. AADR continues to engage with policymakers with an eye toward introducing legislation in 2025.
• In Tennessee, AADR is working with key policymakers on a bill based on the industry’s model legislation for the 2025 session.
• In Wisconsin, we are waiting for the Department of Financial Institutions to draft industry rules. The state legislature is wrapping up its session, which will give the agency more time to complete the rules. 

For Black History Month, National Debt Relief’s Natalia Brown, an AADR Board member, penned a post discussing financial strength, freedom, and resilience. As Brown says, “Black history in the United States often is written or taught by people who did not live it. And their writing often exclusively focuses on the very real atrocities inflicted on this community … While those facts are important to learn and know, it is as important to understand the many ways Black Americans have triumphed. Those are the stories that will lift up my community and help us prosper.” Read Brown’s full post. 

Fifty years ago, women in the United States could not apply for credit cards. Now, according to a survey released last year, 90% of U.S. women control their household’s finances themselves, or share it. For Women’s History Month, we interviewed AADR Board Member and Beyond Finance’s Yolanda Schufford about how women use credit today, and why debt resolution remains a vital option amid life’s little emergencies. Read the interview here.

We also released a post by AADR Head of Compliance Stacey Silva, who argues that in the middle of continued economic uncertainty, consumers and lawmakers can rely on the AADR’s accreditation process and our commitment to create the standards for our member companies to do what is right. Read Silva’s full post. 

Thank you to all our contributors! Do you have an idea for a blog post? Please contact Karin Stragand (Karin@aa4dr.org). 

The AADR Quarterly Newsletter is intended for members of the American Association for Debt Resolution, is for informational purposes only, and is not intended to provide legal advice. Members are encouraged to consult with an attorney of their choice for legal advice.