Our profession brings together a broad of range of expertise and specialisms including insolvency practitioners, turnaround and restructuring experts, lawyers, barristers, valuers, property specialists, funders, and many more who work every day to rescue businesses and jobs, return money to creditors, fight fraud, and help indebted individuals back to financial health.
They work both within and outside formal insolvency processes to stabilise finances, repay creditors where possible and help organisations recover.
A strong insolvency regime is essential to a healthy economy. It enables struggling businesses to be rescued where possible, while providing an orderly and fair process for dealing with those that cannot continue.
A company or individual is considered insolvent when they cannot pay their debts as they fall due, or when liabilities exceed assets. Insolvency procedures are primarily set out in the Insolvency Act 1986, with additional processes available under the Companies Act 2006.
Corporate procedures include liquidation, administration, company voluntary arrangements (CVAs), administrative receivership and moratoriums. Personal procedures include individual voluntary arrangements (IVAs), debt relief orders (DROs) and bankruptcy.
Insolvency practitioners (IPs) are licensed professionals appointed to manage the affairs of insolvent companies or individuals. Their role is to act in the interests of creditors, maximising returns while ensuring the process is fair and lawful. Fees are agreed with creditors or approved by the court.
An IP may act as a liquidator, administrator, supervisor, trustee or nominee, depending on the procedure involved.
A variety of career routes are available, including professional qualifications such as the Joint Insolvency Examination Board’s(JIEB) exams, which all licensed insolvency practitioners in England and Wales must have passed. The breadth of work, responsibility and impact makes the profession both challenging and rewarding.
Insolvency procedures in the UK are overseen by either the government’s Official Receiver or a licensed insolvency practitioner (IP). All IPs must be authorised and regulated to ensure high professional standards and public confidence in the insolvency regime.
Insolvency practitioners are licensed and regulated by Recognised Professional Bodies (RPBs), which are overseen by the Insolvency Service on behalf of the Secretary of State for Business and Trade. The main RPBs are:
- Insolvency Practitioners Association (IPA)
- Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales (ICAEW)
- Institute of Chartered Accountants of Scotland (ICAS)
These bodies are responsible for authorising practitioners, monitoring compliance and taking disciplinary action where standards are not met.
The restructuring, turnaround and insolvency profession brings together a wide range of specialists who support businesses and individuals at times of financial difficulty. At its core are around 1,600 licensed insolvency practitioners, supported by thousands of professionals including restructuring and turnaround advisers, lawyers, valuers, bankers, investors and finance specialists.
Careers in the profession combine technical expertise with commercial judgement and problem‑solving. Many professionals work with businesses and individuals well before insolvency becomes unavoidable, helping to restructure operations or finances and improve the chances of recovery.
If you or your business are facing financial difficulty, it’s important to seek early advice from a qualified, regulated professional. R3’s Find a Member directory helps you locate restructuring, turnaround and insolvency professionals across the UK, by location and area of expertise.
R3 welcomes professionals at all stages of their career who work in restructuring, turnaround and insolvency. Membership offers opportunities to develop skills, connect with peers through networking and events and helps you stay informed about developments affecting the profession.
Find out about becoming an R3 member.
- Almost 24,000 company insolvencies in 2025 – most were creditors’ voluntary liquidations
- Over 126,000 personal insolvencies in 2025 – most were individual voluntary arrangements
- More than 3,300 R3 members across 700+ firms
- Thousands of viable businesses rescued each year by members of the profession