Get To Know Our Licensed Insolvency Trustees
The Office of the Superintendent of Bankruptcy (OSB) - Canada's regulator of bankruptcy and insolvency - has announced that the designation “Trustee in Bankruptcy” will be replaced by “Licenced Insolvency Trustee” in the New Year, although Trustees can start using the new designation earlier if they so choose.
The objective of the change in designation is to ensure that Canadians can easily identify individuals who are licensed by the Superintendent of Bankruptcy to provide services under the Bankruptcy and Insolvency Act (BIA), so that they can be given the information needed to make educated decisions about how to best address debt and insolvency problems.
The term ‘Trustee in Bankruptcy’ is too narrow in scope to accurately cover all of the services Trustees are able to provide. Speaking more to that point, one concern surrounding the designation of ‘Trustee in Bankruptcy’, was that consumers and corporations would think that bankruptcy claims were the only services Trustees were able to provide. While helping parties in significant financial distress file for bankruptcy is certainly something we do, our capabilities extend far beyond that. For example, Trustees are the only professionals who can file Proposals on behalf of both individuals and corporations. As Licensed Insolvency Trustees, we always carefully review all of the options available to an insolvent party and indeed have always been required to do so. In order to best protect consumers and corporations struggling with insolvency, the Office of the Superintendent of Bankruptcy has indicated that they will be more aggressive in sanctioning parties who attempt to identify themselves as providing the same services as Licensed Insolvency Trustees without in fact being licenced to do so.
To learn more about the designation change, please contact your local MNP Trustee or click here to read the statement provided by the OSB.
As one of the largest Insolvency firms in Canada, with over 51 soon to be Licensed Insolvency Trustees, MNP Ltd. enthusiastically supports this change.
Ian Schofield is a Bankruptcy Trustee within our Regina location. To learn more about how MNP Debt can help you, contact any of our local office at 306.790.7900.
