IAIR issues the Certified Insurance Receiver
* and the Accredited Insurance Receiver
* credentials to experts in the management of troubled insurers. Read more about IAIR at www.IAIR.org. The agreement between the two international associations allows their members to learn from each other’s invaluable skill-set and expertise and to earn the respective certifications. The alliance also enables professionals who are members of these organizations to participate in each other’s online and live training programs at reduced prices.
Both organizations conduct conferences and other training events in the US and other countries. IAIR will conduct its acclaimed Annual Insolvency
* Workshop in New Orleans on January 19-21, 2011. More information is available at www.iair.org. IAAR will hold its Cross-Border Asset Tracing and Recovery Conference in June 2011 in London. More information can be found at www.iaaronline.org.
Compatibility of missions led to agreement
"We knew from the start of IAAR in 2009 that insurance receivers must have the skills to trace and recover assets around the world. Persons who defraud insurance companies and leave them with empty coffers are quite adept at hiding their fraud proceeds in places that are hard to find. The skills that IAAR teaches are invaluable for a core mission of insurance receivers and those working with troubled insurers,” said Patrick Cantilo, President of IAIR.
"IAAR will help the important group of IAIR professionals improve their skills. The CSAR credential will attest to their special skills. By the same token IAAR members can benefit from the training and certification that IAIR offers. I like to call this a ‘mutual assistance agreement’ between two associations that confront two of the world's largest challenges. It is a good fit and will help the members of both," said IAAR president Charles Intriago, a former federal prosecutor who also founded the Association of Certified Anti-Money Laundering Specialists (ACAMS).
Until now there has been no way to certify that professionals who are hired to recover assets worldwide have the necessary skills. Certifications exist in fraud examination and anti-money laundering, but they do not extend to what IAR calls the "endgame" of all frauds, which is the recovery of the fraud proceeds," added Intriago.
Insurance receivers and asset recovery* professionals have 'converging interests'
"Insurance receivers are entrusted by the courts to recover the losses suffered by victims of crime and fraud," said Patrick Cantilo, President of IAIR and partner at Austin, Texas firm, Cantilo & Bennett, LLP. "Our associations have converging interests, and we know this alliance in training and certification will sharpen the skills of insurance receivers and asset recovery
* specialists."
About IAAR, IAIR, and the CSAR exam
Founded in 2008 as the Association of Certified Asset Forfeiture
* Specialists, IAAR is the only international membership organization for private sector and government professionals who work to recover assets held by fraudsters or wrongfully held by others.
New York-based, IAIR was founded in 1991 to provide insurance receivers and those working with troubled insurers an organization through which they could receive training and education, exchange information, and enhance the standards followed in insurance receiverships. Its primary mission is to promote the highest standards of administration of troubled insurers and insurance receiverships, the prompt, effective and efficient closing of receiverships and to promote a uniform code of professional standards for professionals in these areas.
(Media inquiries concerning IAAR may be directed to Patricia Valdes, Assistant Executive Director, at 305-517-2715, or e-mail at pvaldes@iaaronline.org. Inquiries about IAIR may be directed to Maria Sclafani, Executive Director, at 718-892-0228 or e-mail mcs@iair.org.) 
Patricia Valdes
