When it comes to drawing up a proposal for your Individual Voluntary Agreement, it has to be done in conjunction with an Insolvency Practitioner. They are the only ones who are licensed to deal with IVAs and bankruptcies. More often than not, they’ll be a former accountant who has gained the necessary certification to oversee insolvency procedures. That can be corporate or personal, individual or joint, bankruptcies or IVAs.
The Insolvency Practitioner could have a particular specialism though and for the vast majority of people who will rely on their services, this will be personal insolvency. As with Debtsolver, agencies and organisations that help individuals in debt will have their own Insolvency Practitioner who specialises in solving people’s personal debt problems. This Insolvency Practitioner will be dedicated to assisting you in finding the right debt solution and brokering a deal with your creditors. Once the best debt solution has been found, they’ll take you through the whole process, from drawing up the original proposal, to pitching it to your creditors and administering the ongoing arrangement.
Taking the example on an Individual Voluntary Arrangement, or IVA, what are the key responsibilities of your IP?
Firstly, they’ll help you in gathering the materials necessary for your IVA proposal. That’s the documentation of your income, outgoings, outstanding debt and assets. They’ll pull all of this together and use it as the basis for a realistic, affordable IVA proposal. The IP will now call a Creditors Meeting, at which they will put the proposal to them.
Upon approval of your IVA, the IP will then take on an administrative role and oversee the repament of the debt on behalf of your creditors. That means any creditor contact will come through your dedicated IP. Provided you stick to the agreed terms, there’s no need to have any contact with them again.
Throughout the IVA process , your IP will be acting in two roles. First and foremost, they are your nominee. Secondly, they’re an IVA supervisor, looking out for the creditors.