Insolvency Practitioners… As the FC of a business I get to see a fair few Administration / Insolvency files. Got one in front of me now where they are charging £150k to wind this Company up and their houlry charges range from £450 per hour for a partner down to £110 per hour for a secretary.

Supposedly some of there objectives when dealing with an administration can be rescuing the company as a going concern. Never seen that happen in our industry..

Achieving a better result for the companys creditors. Perhaps they should reword that to milking as much as they can for their own personal gains..

Any IP want to comment as i rate you as highly as I do the bankers with all their fat bonuses or am I getting this wrong and you all do a great job at a reasonable rate?

It’s a highly-skilled, stressful job with significant personal liability if you balls it up and it’s all done at short notice in a relatively competitive marketplace.

What would be a fair hourly rate?

(btw, I am not an IP and don’t expect anyone to wail about how poorly done by they are!)

Is that all IP’s? Just like all bankers? You seem to have a limited experiance of IP’s if it’s only one industry. Why not name the industry?

Take it up with whoever appointed them and agreed the fee structure.

Spent a few years at manager level in the 90s doing such work and only on 1 job I can recall were full rates billed. Rest were fixed price or a mix of fixed price and discounted time and line. Very competitive market and several jobs done for cost.

Made many successful sales or part sales in that time but it is more highly regulated now than then which may or may not be the problem. Have they delivered the outcomes indicated upon appointment? Perhaps the complaint might better be directed at Directors who let it go beyond the point of no return.

Supposedly some of there objectives when dealing with an administration can be rescuing the company as a going concern. Never seen that happen in our industry.

Maybe the industry is just borked. IDK.

Fees are always deferred in that industry so you have to factor in that they may not get paid for years. And as above hundreds of firms doing from Deloitte down to one man bands? Get what you pay for is my guess?

What would be a fair hourly rate?

Its not £110 per hour for a secretary thats for sure

Bog crowe is in awe of their powers of negotiation though

Bog crowe is in awe of their powers of negotiation though

Must be pretty impressive for non-incumbents to pull the wool over the eyes of all those rapacious capitalist financiers!

What would be a fair hourly rate?

Its not £110 per hour for a secretary thats for sure

This might be where people fail to see the difference between what they’re paid and what they cost. If you are an employee you cost a damn sight more than you’re paid.

not forgetting to factor in the business, and subsequent profits, you generate. If that wasn’t positive, after ‘costs’ then there wouldn’t be a business

Seen some pretty sad cases for companies turned around by IP’s. Also seen it go the other way. Pre pack anyone? Now that is a con.

edit was poor editing.

Few years ago a high street chain went bust on us oqing about 80 quid, i suggested to the manager of the shop they give me 80 quids worth of free stuff , she said cant.

So as i was a creditor a huge envelope dropped through the door, a list of all creditors, as well as what the liquidfators where charging etc, about 80 pages.

A fw weeks latter another one saying they had sold the stock, company vehicles etc, but had got hardly anything for them.

A few weeks latter another huge envelope, again witrht more stuff.

A totally pointless and costly exercise.

Konabunny arent most now LLP to protect their personal liability ?

Konabunny sorry forgot to say that a normally a partner would charge maybe £200 – £250 in previous insolvencies and liquidations i have come across.

Don’t forget expenses on top of the fees. Top class hotels all round when Ipswich Town FC were last in administration. We have cheaper hotels in the area than the one they stayed in that would have sufficed (not premier inn or travelodge before you ask).
Creditors go 10p back on the pound on that one and one very large local contractor was forced into the arms of one of the national major contractors.

The big 4 have been LLP for best part of a decade. Lots of the smaller ones have followed.

There is a valid point about the cost of professional advisors and whether they’re worth the money (and I include accountants, lawyers and bankers there).

Niche specialist areas certainly. Beyond that second tier firms I think give better value. Haven’t seen a second tier partner in a Ferrari yet.

This might be where people fail to see the difference between what they’re paid and what they cost. If you are an employee you cost a damn sight more than you’re paid.

??
I am not sure what your point is here tbh the very basic premise of capitalism is to pay people less for their labour than you earn from it so they charge more but t does not “cost” them to employ you they make money from your employment if it cost them they would not employ you

£110 per hour for a secretary is excessive by anyone standards.

If you charge out someones services by the hour then the cost isn’t their hourly take-home pay plus a margin. The cost is the employees whole annual costs – their salary plus a proportion of all the business costs (the rent, rates, insurances etc, plus whatever personnel support that employee, like pay roll, HR, their management, the cleaner, the receptionist, the security guard) plus a margin for profit. Then thats not divided by the number of working hours in the year, but the number of hours that you can expect to sell.

£110/hr for a secretary really is milking it, surely they should be an overhead anyway.