This week in the Business in Focus series, we talk to Lisa Thomas, a licensed Insolvency Practitioner working for Neville & Co – a southwest-based company with 30 years of experience in business rescue, recovery and liquidation.
This year Lisa celebrates 20 years with Neville & Co. Over that time, she has personally handled over 500 cases, providing insolvency advice to individuals and corporates and helping place companies into solvent liquidation. This enables shareholders to make huge tax savings on distributions paid to them.
Lisa’s also an active member of UKBF, posting over 4,000 messages since she joined in 2015.
We take a deep dive into what this work looks like on a week-to-week basis.
“I love helping people by diverting the pressure from them once they make the decision to liquidate,” she said. “That’s exactly what an insolvency practitioner can provide: taking the tricky closing processes off a business owner’s hands and turning their fortunes around where possible.”
Her best days on the job include passing her licence exams after studying for eight exams over two years and the day she helped a couple save their home via an Individual Voluntary Arrangement.
It’s not all feel-good. There are some parts of the industry Lisa would really like to improve.
“It would be lovely to have less paperwork and compliance! There is so much red tape. I have to fill in almost 60 pages of checklists before I am appointed as liquidator and a further 100 after I am appointed,” she said.
There’s also the question of preparation and mitigation at the incorporation of a business, which makes Lisa’s job much easier if it comes to it:
“I would like to see directors having to take exams to prove they have a basic understanding of accounts and taxes before they can become directors. It’s all too easy to become a director, rack up huge company debts then liquidate.”
“A typical week will include giving free initial advice to directors who need help (nowadays, the inability to repay a Bounce Back Loan is a popular theme – I must sound like a broken record).
“It includes producing the directors’ reports and paperwork needed to liquidate a company, progressing an investigation into the directors conduct on an existing case and writing reports to creditors,” she said.
I will also be processing a solvent liquidation – it’s a lovely feeling giving the shareholders their hard-earned money back when their successful business has finished trading or been sold.”
“We get bad press as ‘grim reapers’ of the business world,” said Lisa. “That can be tough. People don’t always hear of the successes where we have made good recoveries to pay creditors back some money.”
This is why testimonials are essential tools for Neville & Co, to challenge the thinking around their industry.
“Although it is a specialised job, we are thought of as expensive,” Lisa said. “When business owners are down on their luck, it can seem an extra expense to engage an insolvency practitioner’s services. But the value they offer is in the pressure they relieve, the processes they manage and the way they tie everything up neatly at the closing of a business.”
She adds they “give tons of advice away for free”, which includes regularly giving advice on things like the implications of directors falling out and dealing with Bounce Back Loan payments.
It’s also a key place to exchange experience and services: “I give advice under the insolvency forum, with the hope that some posts will lead to an instruction.”
Learn more about Lisa Thomas and her work in insolvency by following her on UKBF.
This year Lisa celebrates 20 years with Neville & Co. Over that time, she has personally handled over 500 cases, providing insolvency advice to individuals and corporates and helping place companies into solvent liquidation. This enables shareholders to make huge tax savings on distributions paid to them.
Lisa’s also an active member of UKBF, posting over 4,000 messages since she joined in 2015.
We take a deep dive into what this work looks like on a week-to-week basis.
The good, the bad and the ugly
Despite this being high-stakes work for the people involved, Lisa handles the responsibility as a professional.“I love helping people by diverting the pressure from them once they make the decision to liquidate,” she said. “That’s exactly what an insolvency practitioner can provide: taking the tricky closing processes off a business owner’s hands and turning their fortunes around where possible.”
Her best days on the job include passing her licence exams after studying for eight exams over two years and the day she helped a couple save their home via an Individual Voluntary Arrangement.
It’s not all feel-good. There are some parts of the industry Lisa would really like to improve.
“It would be lovely to have less paperwork and compliance! There is so much red tape. I have to fill in almost 60 pages of checklists before I am appointed as liquidator and a further 100 after I am appointed,” she said.
There’s also the question of preparation and mitigation at the incorporation of a business, which makes Lisa’s job much easier if it comes to it:
“I would like to see directors having to take exams to prove they have a basic understanding of accounts and taxes before they can become directors. It’s all too easy to become a director, rack up huge company debts then liquidate.”
A typical week
Lisa’s weeks are a healthy mix of advising, paperwork and trying to save people’s investments in their business.“A typical week will include giving free initial advice to directors who need help (nowadays, the inability to repay a Bounce Back Loan is a popular theme – I must sound like a broken record).
“It includes producing the directors’ reports and paperwork needed to liquidate a company, progressing an investigation into the directors conduct on an existing case and writing reports to creditors,” she said.
I will also be processing a solvent liquidation – it’s a lovely feeling giving the shareholders their hard-earned money back when their successful business has finished trading or been sold.”
Overcoming the stereotypes
Lisa’s work is vitally important to help struggling business owners who are keen to “wipe the slate clean and get on with their lives”. But this means insolvency practitioners tend to carry a reputation.“We get bad press as ‘grim reapers’ of the business world,” said Lisa. “That can be tough. People don’t always hear of the successes where we have made good recoveries to pay creditors back some money.”
This is why testimonials are essential tools for Neville & Co, to challenge the thinking around their industry.
“Although it is a specialised job, we are thought of as expensive,” Lisa said. “When business owners are down on their luck, it can seem an extra expense to engage an insolvency practitioner’s services. But the value they offer is in the pressure they relieve, the processes they manage and the way they tie everything up neatly at the closing of a business.”
She adds they “give tons of advice away for free”, which includes regularly giving advice on things like the implications of directors falling out and dealing with Bounce Back Loan payments.
Advice for success in this field
Lisa is meticulous and investigative and lives by the best piece of advice she has received in her career: “Don’t be afraid to ask for more information if you don’t understand something.”What being a UKBF member means
Always in the pursuit of learning more, Lisa joined UKBF to bolster her business knowledge. “It’s a useful place to test and learn new information,” she said.It’s also a key place to exchange experience and services: “I give advice under the insolvency forum, with the hope that some posts will lead to an instruction.”
Learn more about Lisa Thomas and her work in insolvency by following her on UKBF.
