The Secretary of State will cease issuing insolvency licences from 1 October 2016 and many insolvency practitioners previously licensed by the Secretary of State have already changed to another insolvency licence provider. All insolvency practitioners still licensed by the Secretary of State and who wish to continue taking insolvency appointments must ensure that they have changed to one of the other insolvency licence providers before 1 October 2016 and should allow sufficient time for this process to take place. (more…)

The Insolvency (Amendments) Rules 2015 come into effect on 1 October 2015 and bring in the requirements for preparing fees estimates and details of anticipated expenses and sending this information to creditors before the basis of remuneration is approved, either by creditors or a committee.

It will be very important to establish policies to ensure that you are fully compliant with the new rules. Useful, practical advice has been given in Dear IP 65 and Dear IP 68, issued last week, and this should be read, in full, by all members of your insolvency team. Gov UK – dear insolvency practitioner newsletter

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It would be a mistake for an insolvency practitioner to think that only an appointment taker working for one of the big four accountancy firms is likely to be affected by the Pensions Act 2004.  Any insolvency practice with the resources to deal with a going concern sale in an administration could however be instructed in respect of the type of company that had a defined benefit pension scheme and most  smaller firms have the resources to deal with the insolvency of a smaller subsidiary of a group that had one multi-employer defined benefit scheme. Few appointment takers could say that they would never have to deal with the implications of the  Pensions Act and all should be aware of the risks involved.
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