COLLEYVILLE -The Association of Finance & Insurance Professionals (AFIP) announced that Judy Vann Karstadt, President of JV Solutions and NJCAR Academy Director of Training, is the first person in the United States to successfully complete the newly released AFIP Certification Program Master Course final exam.

In his congratulatory remarks, AFIP Executive Director David Robertson underscored the challenges of posting a score of 80 percent or higher on the sanctioning body’s most stringent course of study.

“Based on the current roster of AFIP Certified F&I practitioners, captive lender field operatives, and professional trainers, less than seven percent qualify for Master Certification.” Robertson said.

Upon accepting her diploma from NJCAR’s president, Jim Appleton, Judy said, “I had to draw on three decades of automotive industry experience as well as my expertise in the Basic and Senior curricula while working as an AFIP Accredited Facilitator to pass that test. On the other hand,” Judy continued, “in the course of mastering the material, one will not only have a command of the state and federal rules, but their application to real-world F&I situations.”

Judy Vann started her automotive career in the retail environment as both sales and F&I manager for nine years. She continued her career with Pat Ryan & Associates, where she defined her F&I training experience. Judy spent the next ten years training F&I managers on ethical sales and compliance practices with New Jersey-based F&I Product Suppliers.

She formed JV Solutions six years ago, and has been working with the New Jersey Coalition of Automotive Retailers (NJCAR), as well as many large automotive dealer groups in training and AFIP Certifying their management staffs.

The dealerships who utilize JV Solutions to prepare their F&I personnel for the AFIP final exams find that the successful candidates post passing scores well above industry norms. The time demands of working F&I coupled with the years away from an academic environment make Ms. Vann’s command of the course material and practical experience the key contributors to dealership personnel scoring high marks.