No fees for advice. No referrals for sale.

The light is on.

The slogan is not a marketing position. It is how I have worked from the beginning, and my background explains why.

I graduated from law school in 1991 and began working as a student-at-law that summer. With my call to the bar in 1993, I became a fiduciary: someone whose legal duty is to put the client’s interests ahead of his own. That has been true in every role I have held since, without interruption, and not by coincidence.

For the entire 2000s and most of the 2010s I worked in the investment management industry in the United States. I held supervisory licences with NASD and later FINRA, up to and including the Series 24. The firms I worked for were registered with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission, and I worked under the separate fiduciary obligations those firms carried under the Investment Advisers Act. Different country, different regulators, same duty: the client’s interest comes first.

In 2021 the Superintendent of Bankruptcy issued my Licensed Insolvency Trustee licence. Of all the fiduciary roles I have held across my career, this is the one I cherish most. Being a fiduciary is not unfamiliar territory for me. It has been the constant.

One more fact, stated plainly because it matters. In my entire career, under every regulatory regime I have worked in, I have never been in any type of trouble and have never had a complaint. I plan to keep it that way.

The code I work under

A Licensed Insolvency Trustee is not a fiduciary by tradition alone. The role carries a statutory code of ethics. Section 34 of the Bankruptcy and Insolvency General Rules states it plainly: “Every trustee shall maintain the high standards of ethics that are central to the maintenance of public trust and confidence in the administration of the Act.” You can read the full Code of Ethics for Trustees for yourself: Code of Ethics for Trustees, Bankruptcy and Insolvency General Rules, C.R.C., c. 368, sections 34 to 53. That code, and this page’s promise, point the same way.

If you have worked with a Licensed Insolvency Trustee who you believe may have violated the Code of Ethics, you can report him or her here: file a complaint with the Office of the Superintendent of Bankruptcy.

The Insolvency Report exists as a public educational resource. Every day I hear from Canadians who are frightened, overwhelmed, or simply unsure where to turn, and I try to answer as many questions as I reasonably can, so that people understand their options before they make important financial decisions. The slogan at the top of this page does not mean that professional services are always free. When someone needs professional legal or insolvency work, that work is done through the professional firms involved, and like every legitimate law firm or Licensed Insolvency Trustee practice, those firms charge fees for the work they perform. What the slogan promises is narrower, and I mean every word of it: this website charges nothing for educational information or for pointing someone in the right direction, and nobody pays me anything for the pointing.

That second promise deserves to be spelled out in full. I have never accepted, and will never accept, a commission, a referral fee, a bonus, a gift, or any other financial incentive for sending someone to another professional. There are no kickbacks, no gift cards, no baseball tickets, no expensive dinners. If we happen to have lunch together, I pay my own bill. When I suggest that someone speak with an estate lawyer, a family lawyer, a tax specialist, a mortgage professional, a credit counsellor, or another Licensed Insolvency Trustee, that recommendation is made for one reason only: I believe it is in that person’s best interests. My professional reputation is worth far more than any referral fee.

The light is on because I believe Canadians deserve honest information, independent guidance, and referrals based on professional judgment, not financial incentives.

Paul Franchi, JD, MBA, CIRP, LIT—Founder

Check who you are dealing with

If you are unsure whether the person giving you debt advice is a Licensed Insolvency Trustee, you can check right here. This is the federal government’s own registry of every active Licensed Insolvency Trustee in Canada. Search by name or location. If the person is not in this registry, they are not a Licensed Insolvency Trustee.

The light is on.