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Monday, August 11, 2008

Cornerstone vs. The ACA

The ARM Industry:

As many of you have heard, ACA International (your tax-exempt trade association) has decided that it is not in the best interest of the association or its members to allow an organization providing risk management services to advertise their products or services through ACA International or its affiliated organizations. While I understand that ACA Enterprises (the for-profit arm of ACA International) provides similar risk management products and services, I fail to understand how restricting competition could be in the best interest of either ACA International or its members. In fact, I would argue that the opposite is true.

Cornerstone Support has been committed to providing the most comprehensive risk management products and services in the collection industry for more than ten years. As part of that continued mission and as a direct response to a significant number of client requests, we established a program to provide commercial insurance including E&O insurance to the collection industry. I have found that in most cases there has been a disparity in the cost of the Travelers policy through the ACA program and the actual market rate for a comparable policy with a comparable carrier. In fact, we have saved clients as much as 25% over their prior year E&O premium.

In my opinion, the decision to prohibit Cornerstone Support (an organization that has built a reputation as the premier licensing service provider to the collection industry) from advertising products and services through ACA International commits a disservice to the association and its members. I believe it also establishes a dangerous precedent for vendor members of ACA International.

If you are concerned that ACA International has not acted in the best interest of its members, I encourage you to contact ACA International's Executive Committee with your concerns.

ACA International
4040 West 70th Street
Minneapolis, MN 55439
(952) 926-1624
rippentrop@acainternational.org

For more information or if you would like the assurance that you are not currently overpaying for E&O Insurance, email insurance@cornerstonesupport.com or call us at (770) 587-4595.

Kindest Regards,

Matt Pridemore
Vice President
Cornerstone Support, Inc.
Office: (770) 587-4595