Having to seek the assistance of an insolvency practitioner is never an easy situation to find yourself in.
No matter the circumstances that led to that financial situation, it’s imperative that you’re able to access the right help to limit the further damage you and your business are exposed to going forwards.
There are certain things you need to look out for – from certification to effective communication, here’s how to choose the ideal insolvency practitioner.
Certification
Before anything else, one of the core parts of your due diligence is to ensure that any insolvency practitioners you’re looking into are properly certified. Some of the main professional bodies include the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (ACCA) and the Insolvency Practitioners Association (IPA).
Guiding a business through insolvency is no mean feat, and it requires high levels of training and experience – there are plenty of people out there who claim to be qualified, but many of them simply don’t have the skills necessary.
Experience
Next, once you’ve identified an insolvency practitioner that’s suitably certified, you need to look into how much experience they have, and with which kinds of businesses and organisations.
Ideally, you’ll want to identify a practitioner from a reputable firm like Chamberlain & Co that has extensive experience helping businesses in a similar predicament to the situation you find yourself in. Certification and training are incredibly important, but ultimately, you want to find a practitioner with sufficient real-world experience to back that training up.
Reviews
Businesses of all kinds have been known to exaggerate their professional capabilities on their websites. That’s why it’s really important to look at online reviews, to see what their clients think about the quality of their offerings.
Obviously, the best way of finding out how good a service the insolvency practitioner you’re looking at can provide is to ask another professional in your niche directly. However, the next best will be to check for online testimonials and Google reviews – obviously, the more people singing their praise, the better.
Services
Insolvency practitioners offer a wide variety of different services. It’s a complicated process, and each practitioner will obviously be better in some areas than others. As a result, it’s best to try to identify a service provider who specialises in the exact services that you need.
That could be bankruptcy proceedings, a creditors voluntary liquidation, or a company restructuring. It’s likely that you’ll need to speak to them first to find out what kind of service is best for your specific situation – if they’re a good insolvency practitioner (which you should know from their reviews) then they’ll be honest with you if they don’t think they’re the best solution for your issue.
These are the basic things that you need to think about when choosing an insolvency practitioner. It’s likely that you’re in a highly time sensitive position, but it’s incredibly important that you’re still thorough. Now is the time to limit your professional and personal liability by making the best choice possible – don’t rush into something that could make a bad situation even worse.
Read more:
The beginners guide to choosing an insolvency practitioner
