What Is ABAR?

What Is ABAR?

ABAR stands for Accredited in Business Appraisal Review, a credential created by the National Association of Certified Valuators and Analysts (NACVA) to recognize professionals who review business valuation reports for quality, methodology, and compliance. The designation was built around the review function of business appraisal work - evaluating whether another analyst's valuation conclusions and supporting documentation hold up to scrutiny, rather than performing the original appraisal itself.

If you have found this page while researching credentials that share the "ABAR" acronym, it is worth pausing here: this article, and this site, cover only the NACVA-administered Accredited in Business Appraisal Review credential. No facts below are borrowed from any other program that happens to use the same initials.

Current Status: Suspended for New Applicants

Because ABAR has been closed to new candidates since 2016, there is no current ABAR exam, no published exam blueprint, and no active set of tested content domains to prepare for. That single fact reshapes almost every question a prospective candidate might ask about "how to pass ABAR" - there is nothing new to sit for. If you searched for a domain breakdown expecting an active testing outline, our companion piece on ABAR exam domains and content areas explains why that structure no longer exists for new applicants and what legacy documentation looked like historically.

This distinction matters for anyone comparing ABAR to other valuation-adjacent designations. Searches about how difficult the ABAR exam is or ABAR pass rate data are, in practical terms, questions about a closed program rather than a live testing pipeline. Prospective candidates evaluating career paths should treat ABAR as a historical credential and look instead at NACVA's currently open designations.

Who Holds ABAR and Why It Still Matters

People who earned ABAR before the 2016 suspension typically work in business valuation, litigation support, and financial forensics environments where a second set of expert eyes on a valuation report adds credibility. Firms and courts that rely on business appraisal reports have long valued reviewers who can independently assess whether a valuation's assumptions, data sources, and methodology are defensible. ABAR holders built careers around exactly that skill set, and many continue practicing under the credential today.

For legacy holders, the credential still signals a specific competency: the ability to critique and validate another analyst's business appraisal work rather than simply produce valuations from scratch. That distinction is why maintaining the designation - rather than letting it lapse - remains worthwhile for many professionals, even though no one can newly enroll in the underlying exam program.

Maintaining an Existing ABAR Credential

For current holders, ABAR is not something you earn once and forget. Keeping the designation recognized requires two ongoing commitments: annual NACVA membership and a recurring three-year recertification cycle.

The recertification requirement itself has two components:

• 60 applicable continuing professional education (CPE) hours completed within each three-year cycle
• A $400 recertification fee due as part of that cycle

NACVA also builds in an incentive for holders who complete their CPE through NACVA's own coursework:

• Completing 15-29 hours of NACVA courses earns a $200 fee waiver
• Completing 30 or more hours of NACVA courses earns a full $400 fee waiver

These waiver thresholds give holders a direct incentive to route their CPE hours through NACVA programming rather than scattering them across unrelated providers, since doing so can eliminate the recertification fee entirely.

For a full breakdown of what recertification actually costs across a cycle, including how the waiver tiers interact with the base fee, see ABAR Certification Cost: Complete Pricing Breakdown.

The 2025 Shift to Attestation and Audit

Starting in 2025, NACVA changed how ABAR holders document their CPE compliance. Previously, holders reported each qualifying course individually. Under the current system, holders instead attest that they have completed their required CPE hours, rather than itemizing every course as it's completed.

That shift reduces paperwork, but it does not reduce accountability. Holders must:

• Retain supporting records and documentation for three years after the end of the applicable reporting cycle
• Be prepared for the possibility of an audit, in which NACVA may request evidence backing up the attestation

In practice, this means the honor-system nature of attestation comes with real record-keeping obligations. Holders who assume attestation means "nothing to document" risk trouble if audited and unable to produce proof of the CPE hours they claimed.

Inactive and Emeritus Status Options

Not every ABAR holder wants to keep actively meeting the full recertification cycle indefinitely. NACVA offers two separate maintenance paths for qualifying holders who want to step back from full active status without abandoning the credential outright:

• Inactive status - a holding pattern for holders who are not currently practicing but want to preserve their designation for potential future reactivation
• Emeritus status - a recognition path generally suited to holders transitioning out of active practice, such as at retirement

Both are distinct programs with their own qualification rules, separate from the standard active recertification track described above. Holders considering either option should review NACVA's specific criteria before assuming eligibility, since the requirements differ meaningfully from ongoing active maintenance.

ABAR vs. Active Credentials

Because ABAR is closed to new applicants, anyone evaluating a career move into valuation review work needs to understand which credentials NACVA and other bodies currently issue. It's also important to correct a misconception that occasionally circulates: neither NACVA's CVA credential nor ISBA's BCA-R credential is simply "ABAR under a new name." They are distinct programs with their own histories, requirements, and governing bodies.

For professionals weighing whether pursuing any valuation credential is worth the investment of time and money in the current landscape, our analysis on whether ABAR certification is worth it walks through the tradeoffs specifically in light of the program's closed status. And if you're trying to sort out eligibility questions across these overlapping programs, ABAR Requirements: Eligibility, Prerequisites & How to Qualify lays out exactly who can and cannot pursue each path today.

Planning a Three-Year CPE Cycle

Even without a new exam to study for, existing ABAR holders benefit from treating each three-year recertification cycle with the same discipline a candidate would apply to exam preparation - just redirected toward CPE planning instead of test content. A structured approach prevents the common failure mode of scrambling for hours in the final months of a cycle.

How ABAR Exam Prep Supports Legacy Holders

Because there is no open ABAR exam to sell preparation for, abartest.com focuses its content on what actually helps the people connected to this credential today: legacy holders maintaining their status, professionals researching business-appraisal-review skills, and candidates trying to understand where ABAR fits relative to active designations like CVA and MAFF. That includes practical resources such as original case-style exercises modeled on business appraisal review scenarios, explainers on recertification mechanics, and side-by-side comparisons with currently open credentials.

If your interest in ABAR started with a basic definitional question, our related explainers on what ABAR means and what ABAR stands for cover the terminology from different angles, while the ABAR cheat sheet condenses the program-status facts above into a one-page reference. For those specifically weighing career direction, ABAR Jobs looks at where business-appraisal-review skills are applied in practice, and you can browse practice-oriented review material on the main ABAR Exam Prep site at any time.

Frequently Asked Questions