The Office of the Superintendent of Bankruptcy (OSB) implemented the Trustee Annual Report (TAR) on February 2, 2023, with the objective of collecting more accurate information on LIT business models and practices.
The TAR will be required as part of the licence renewal process. It will provide the OSB with information to support trustee compliance activities and will reduce duplicative requests and administrative burden, particularly during Trustee Office Visits. The TAR has been integrated into the OSB Licensing Administration Application (OLAA) and will be auto-populated with the prior year’s information such that LITs would only have to validate existing content or update with new information before attesting to its accuracy. Information that is common to all LITs across an LIT firm will be answered only by the LIT in charge for the firm. All LITs will need to respond to the eight confirmations, the last item in the table below, as well as the EFile terms of use and the Trustee Electronic Record Keeping (TERK) attestation and declaration. Sole proprietors will be responsible to answer all items on the TAR .
All LITs will have to complete the TAR in order to renew their licence and may update information in the TAR at any time during the year. LITs may provide feedback on the TAR to osblicencebsf-bkhq@ised-isde.gc.ca.
| TAR items and responses sought from LITs |
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Insurance: LITs will need to confirm that they have adequate professional liability insurance and adequate employee dishonesty insurance (also known as fidelity insurance). (Directive No. 13R7,paragraph 29 (h)) |
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Corporate Structure: LIT firms must provide details of share ownership as well as details of all directors and officers. Directive No. 13R7, paragraphs 35-41) |
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Succession / Continuity plan: LITs must indicate whether a succession plan is in place and if yes, provide details of the plan. |
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Individuals assisting with assessments: LITs must provide a list of individuals they have registered with the OSB . (Directive No. 6R5) |
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Contract LITs and LITs who are not employees: LITs must disclose all LITs who work for their firm on a contract basis but are not employees. |
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Agreements with, and referrals from, debt consultants: LITs must disclose referrals and agreements with debt consultants. Code of Ethics for Trustees - BIA General Rules Bankruptcy and Insolvency General Rules (justice.gc.ca) s 34 – 53; in particular, 44, 49, 50, and 52. Debt Consultant includes “Intermediary” and “Referral Arranger” as defined in Directive No. 1R7. |
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Trustee Electronic Record Keeping (TERK): LIT s will need to review and attest that they meet the requirements of the TERK agreement, and Trustees in Charge will need to confirm the LIT s to whom the TERK agreement applies. (Directive No. 32) |
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E-File Terms of Use – All LIT s will need to review and confirm that they abide by the E-File terms of use. |
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Other Confirmations – All LIT s will need to confirm the following:
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Reducing Administrative Burden
The primary purpose of the TAR is to ensure that the OSB has accurate and up-to-date information on the LIT s and LIT firms that it oversees. The TAR will reduce the administrative burden by ensuring that this information is all in one place and easily accessible by all OSB staff and easily reviewable by LIT s. Here is a list of specific instances associated with the items in the TAR that will reduce the administrative burden on LIT s.
Insurance: Is reviewed and confirmed at Licensed Insolvency Trustee Office Visits (LITOVs) – This info will be accessible to OSB staff and unless there are other reasons to look into it should not be needed at future LITOVs .
Corporate Structure: All LIT s will be required to provide this information and it is essential for the OSB to have this information as pre-approval to changes in corporate structure are required. This will assist both the licensing and compliance functions as this information is reviewed at the time of LITOVs and making it available to all OSB employees in a central location will ensure that requests to produce this information will be reduced.
Succession and Continuity plans: The OSB considers this a best practice, and LIT s will need to provide details of their succession plan. Having it as part of the TAR will ensure it is accessible to all OSB staff and easily reviewable by LIT s.
TERK and E-File Terms of Use: These are both reviewed during LITOVs . The working group indicated they are sometimes hard to locate and need to be reissued. Having them available in the TAR will ensure it is accessible to all OSB staff and easily reviewable by LIT s.
Individuals assisting with assessments: These are approved at the local OSB level and LIT s are obliged to retain copies of the approvals and provide them to OSB staff when requested. This information is reviewed at LITOVs . The working group indicated that keeping an up-to-date list is challenging and having it as part of the TAR will assist LIT s in that regard. OSB staff will be able to review it prior to TOVs and this will reduce the burden on LIT s to locate and produce the list.
Agreements with and referrals from debt consultants: (Debt Consultant includes “Intermediary” and “Referral Arranger” as defined in Directive No 1R7.) – This is reviewed at the time of LITOVs and having it in a central place will remove the burden on LIT s to create and produce the list when requested by the OSB .
For many firms these items are the same for all offices across the country and could be the subject of numerous requests over the course of the year for firms operating in multiple jurisdictions. Having it all centralized will be of benefit to LIT s and will ensure that the OSB has easy access to the information and that it is accurate and up to date.
Privacy Notice
All personal information created, held or collected by this department is protected under the Privacy Act. This means that you will be informed of the purpose for which it is being collected and how to exercise your right of access to that information. You will be asked for your consent where appropriate.
Access to Information
Information and documents submitted for the TAR and in OLAA may be subject to access to information requests; however, the OSB would make every effort to exempt third party and personal information, as set out in the Access to Information Act, from disclosure.