CAIRP

Canadian Association of Insolvency and Restructuring Professionals

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Trustee Designation and Advertising Directive No.33 – Licensed Insolvency Trustee

The Office of the Superintendent of Bankruptcy (OSB) on Dec. 2 released the long-awaited Directive on Trustee Designation and Advertising.

Under the new Directive, the term Trustee in Bankruptcy will be replaced by Licensed Insolvency Trustee (LIT) in all advertising by trustees. While the new name is not exactly Licensed Trustee in Insolvency Restructuring as proposed by CAIRP, it nonetheless achieves one of CAIRP’s key objectives and would never have come about without the determined work of CAIRP and its members. 

For several years, we have worked with our members to advocate for a new designation which better reflects the breadth services offered by trustees to assist consumers and businesses in financial difficulty and which clearly distinguishes our trustee members from unlicensed service providers.

For this reason, CAIRP has issued a news release welcoming the new Directive. It can be found here, and a more detailed analysis of the new Directive will follow in the days ahead. However, we are very pleased that the OSB has incorporated a number of suggestions made by CAIRP and our members:

  • Stronger protection against the misuse and abuse of the new designation, especially by unlicensed providers
  • No prohibition against the use of endorsements in advertising (subject to professional standards)
  • Greater clarity  with respect to professional standards in the use of advertising, including a prohibition on the use of the term “specialist”

The new Directive comes into effect on April 1st; however, trustees can begin to use the new name right away provided they sign a consent agreement with the OSB http://www.ic.gc.ca/eic/site/bsf-osb.nsf/eng/br03488.html. CAIRP strongly encourages our members to consider early adoption. Trustees will be given a one-year transition period before all forms of advertising must use LIT.

Without the work and support of our members, we would never have been able to achieve the new designation announced today. We would especially like to thank the members of the Advertising Directive Task Force and the Name Review Task Force for their dedicated work on this issue. In addition, we are grateful to the many members who sent comments to the OSB following the release of the draft Directive in June.

CAIRP will be in ongoing dialogue with the OSB regarding the interpretation of the directive and will keep members informed of any developments in this regard.

We will also be providing our members with the resources necessary to ensure a smooth transition as trustees integrate the requirements of the new Directive into their practice.

The Directive and all related documents provided by the OSB can be found here http://www.ic.gc.ca/eic/site/bsf-osb.nsf/eng/br03475.html.

Make the Change!