Beware of unqualified insolvency advice
Directors in financial distress are a targeted market - and the advice industry that has grown around them ranges from the merely unregulated to the actively harmful, so here is how to tell the difference in minutes.
The warning signs
You can never speak to a named, licensed insolvency practitioner - only "advisers" and "consultants".
Outcomes are promised - "write off your debts", "keep your assets, guaranteed", "avoid investigation" - promises no regulated professional could make.
Fees are quoted before anyone has asked about your company; pressure to sign today; and a website that names no licensed individuals anywhere.
The schemes that harm directors
The patterns that recur in regulatory action: advisers who charge for pre-insolvency asset moves that liquidators later reverse (leaving the director with both problems and the fee gone); strike-off schemes for indebted companies that end in restoration and investigation; and aggressive redundancy-claim farming built on eligibility that doesn't survive scrutiny.
The common thread: the fee is taken before the consequences arrive, and the consequences arrive on the director.
The two-minute verification
Ask for the practitioner's full name and licensing body, then search the Insolvency Service's public register of insolvency practitioners.
Licensed and listed means regulated - standards, bonding, monitoring, and a complaints route, as our regulation page explains; absent from the register means none of that exists, whatever the website says.
The regulated alternative costs nothing to try
A free first conversation with a licensed practitioner gives you the same starting point the schemes advertise - options explained, position assessed - inside the regulated framework.
Call 0333 023 5090 and check us on the register while you dial - we'd genuinely encourage it.
InsolvencySupport.co.uk is operated by Xeinadin Corporate Recovery Limited (company no. 11415156), 8th Floor, 100 Barbirolli Square, Manchester M2 3BD. Our insolvency practitioners are licensed and regulated by the ICAEW.
This page is intended for general information purposes only and does not constitute financial, legal, or professional advice. Always take advice from a licensed insolvency practitioner about your specific position.