Dealing With A Licensed Bankruptcy Trustee

To file a bankruptcy in Canada under the Bankruptcy and Insolvency Act, it can only be done through a licensed Bankruptcy Trustee. If you are considering personal bankruptcy, it is important that the person you speak to is licensed to provide bankruptcy services including both personal bankruptcy and consumer proposals.

The Office of the Superintendent of Bankruptcy is with Industry Canada, the arm of the Canadian federal government responsible for licensing Bankruptcy Trustees and monitoring the administration of our bankruptcy laws.

Under our Rules of Professional Conduct, when a trustee in bankruptcy advertises, it must be disclosed in the advertisement that they are a licensed trustee in bankruptcy.

Because of the high levels of consumer debts in Canada, in recent years we have seen an increase in the number of debt management companies that advertise how they can help you avoid bankruptcy.  There are some that are legitimate, but currently there is no regulation of these types of companies. Anyone can start a debt counselling business and they may have little or no training in counselling debtors with their financial problems.  Caution is the word of warning because if it sounds to be good to be true, it probably is too good to be true.

To become a licenced trustee in bankruptcy, you must complete a rigorous program of examinations and demonstrate that you have achieved a level of competency in the following specific areas:

• Insolvency philosophy and practice
• Insolvency law and practice,
• Taxation,
• General business law,
• Financing,
• Managing business operations,
• Financial analysis and reporting.

After demonstrating competence in those areas, the final part of the process is to appear before a board of examiners where you must present your answers to a number of case studies and show that you can present a logical and comprehensive understanding of the issues in each case study.  Many trustees are also chartered accountants who have completed an extensive program of testing and training to achieve that designation.

So, you can see that Trustee’s in Bankruptcy are well trained professionals knowledgeable in many aspects of business and not just the bankruptcy laws.  We have a number of licensed trustees ready to help people facing financial problems so that a reasonable plan can be developed to help solve your difficulties.