ASA Members Present Aircraft Market and Appraisal Updates at M&T Equipment Management Group

On June 7, ASA members, Rick Berkemeier and Paul Cogley presented an aircraft market update and forecast, along with key industry practices and the importance of appraisers to M&T Equipment Management Group (led by Doug Simon) in Newport RI. Together, Rick and Paul have a combined 60 year experience in the leasing industry, and both are active members of ASA serving in several leadership positions, most notably including on ASA’s Board of Governors and Machinery & Technical Specialties Committee.

Rick’s slide deck was created by Rollie Vincent which was presented the previous week at the Falcon Briefing. The presentation demonstrated that along with U.S. corporate profits, business jet flight operations have fully rebounded from the COVID downturn, as order backlogs for new aircrafts have surged as pre-owned inventory for sale has plummeted to unprecedentedly low levels, driving up aircraft prices and valuations. Rick showed a recent survey in which most industry professionals shared the same sentiment believing that the increase in aircraft prices and valuations seen in the past 12-18 months could continue for at least the next 12 months.

While hearing about the aircraft market forecast, it was the perfect time for Paul to introduce the staff at M&T to ASA updates and its developing CEMP program. He also spoke about what it takes to make a great Equipment Management team and the importance of communications required when engaging an appraiser; which were both also well received. As more irrational buyer behaviors (pre-buy inspection waivers, bidding wars for used aircraft etc.) continue, Paul did a great job conveying the importance of having the lease contract and the use, maintenance and return provisions for the appraiser to perform the assignment to these necessary requirements.

He continued educating M&T on key industry practices, explaining that having a usable database of equipment sales points – both FMV and OLV, is pivotal when capturing appraisal values over time and organizing the data with tools to allow access, aggregation and regression analysis of the data.

The last topic covered was the importance of the ASA ARM designation and the ARM courses – specifically as they related to appraisals that Equipment Managers would commission from third party appraisers.

Thank you, Rick Berkemeier and Paul Cogley, for sharing your wealth of industry knowledge and the importance of appraisers to other allied professionals!

Rick Berkemeier, ASA is Senior Appraiser at Pegasus Aircraft Appraisal Group. He has over 20 years of experience as a valuation expert with a demonstrated history of working in the banking industry. Mr. Berkemeier first joined ASA in 1994, and is an active volunteer with numerous leadership positions, including most notably serving as International Vice President of ASA’s Board of Governors and past Chair of its Machinery & Technical Specialties Discipline Committee.

Paul R. Cogley, Jr. ASA is a retired Senior Vice President at Banc of America Leasing & Capital. He has over 40 years of experience in leasing and machinery & equipment valuation. Mr. Cogley has been a designated member of ASA for 16 of years, and is an active volunteer with numerous leadership positions, including most notably serving as Region 1 Governor, MTS Vice Chair & Treasurer, International Education Committee Chair, MTS Instructor & Course Writer.  Mr. Cogley was the recipient of the Jerry F. Larkins Volunteer Service Award in 2020.