FORT MYERS, Fla. (April 26, 2011) - Steve Brettholtz, president and shareholder of Myers, Brettholtz & Company, PA, Certified Public Accountants & Business Consultants, served as moderator and speaker at this year's American Resort Development Association's Annual Convention and Exposition in Orlando from March 27 to 31.
Held at the Orlando World Center Marriott, this gathering for the vacation ownership industry attracted more than 3,000 participants from more than 20 countries and offered attendees a myriad of educational, networking and social opportunities. This is the largest show specifically geared toward the resort development industry.
Brettholtz served as moderator and speaker for a panel discussion on homeowner associations titled "Real Challenges - Real Solutions" that addressed a variety of financial, operational and legal issues facing timeshare HOAs in today's economic environment. Brettholtz, along with other key industry experts discussed significant challenges and how associations are working to solve them, including bad debt cycle, solutions to resolve deficits and ways to prevent existing deficits from increasing.
Key points of the discussion included the importance of staying on top of delinquent owners; making sure you are accounting for possible nonpayment by properly including a bad debt expense line item in the current year budget; how the adoption of the nonjudicial foreclosure process by many states, including Florida, has greatly increased the ability of timeshare associations to foreclose on units faster and with reduced costs; the correlation between improper budgeting and deficits that associations incur noting that the State of Florida reviews all timeshare budgets and audits and notes where an association may be deemed a troubled resort; reserve studies and how many associations are not properly funding for future repairs and replacements; and options timeshare associations have in attempting to reduce their yearly real estate taxes.
"Many associations have appealed and asked for a reduction and some have been granted while others have hired specialists who can handle this issue for them," said Brettholtz.
A past chair of the Florida Institute of Certified Public Accountants Common Interest Realty Association committee, Brettholtz is a member of ARDA and serves on their Federal Issues and Resort Management committees and is a past national trustee for Community Associations Institute. He has authored numerous articles regarding community association operations and was a contributing author to the "Guide to Homeowners' Associations and Other Common Interest Realty Associations," published by Practitioners Publishing Company. He is a frequent lecturer for both local and national organizations and is recognized as an accredited provider of continuing education courses for the State of Florida Licensed Community Association Managers. He is a member of the Florida, California, Hawaii, Nevada, New York and American Institute of Certified Public Accountants, is an associate member of the Association of Certified Fraud Examiners and is certified in financial forensics.
Brettholtz's years of accounting experience include numerous assignments in all phases of common interest realty association development and administration, nonprofit organizations and various business entities.
