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    Glossary

    The words behind closed companies, in plain English

    Insolvency and data law use their own vocabulary. Each term below gets one or two plain sentences and the countries where you will meet it. General information, not legal advice; the exact meaning depends on local law.

    People

    Officeholder
    The person legally in charge of a closing or closed company's affairs, usually a licensed insolvency professional: an administrator, liquidator, trustee or receiver. They, not the former directors, decide what happens to the company's assets, including its records. All countries
    Insolvency practitioner
    A licensed professional who can act as administrator or liquidator of a company. UK, Ireland
    Bankruptcy trustee
    The person who takes control of the assets in a bankruptcy case and sells them for creditors. In the US, Chapter 7 trustees are usually appointed through the US Trustee Program. US
    Licensed insolvency trustee
    The professional licensed to run bankruptcies and proposals under Canada's Bankruptcy and Insolvency Act. Canada
    Receiver
    Someone appointed by a lender or a court to take control of particular assets, often so a secured lender can be repaid. UK, Canada, Australia, Ireland
    Assignee
    The person a company transfers all its assets to in an assignment for the benefit of creditors. The assignee sells them and pays creditors. US
    Creditors
    People and businesses the company owes money to: lenders, suppliers, staff, tax authorities. Money raised from the company's assets goes to them in a set order.

    Processes

    Administration
    A formal process where an administrator takes control to rescue the company or get a better result for creditors than an immediate liquidation would. UK
    Liquidation
    The company's assets are sold, the money is shared among creditors, and the company is then dissolved. It can be voluntary or ordered by a court. All countries, under different names
    Pre-pack
    A sale of the business agreed before an administrator is appointed and completed straight after. Whether the records went to the buyer depends on the sale agreement. UK
    Chapter 7
    US bankruptcy liquidation: a trustee sells the company's assets and pays creditors. US
    Chapter 11
    US bankruptcy reorganisation: the business usually keeps running under court supervision while it restructures or sells itself. US
    Section 363 sale
    A sale of assets out of a US bankruptcy case, approved by the court under section 363 of the Bankruptcy Code. If the assets include personal data, the court can appoint a consumer privacy ombudsman to advise on it. US
    Assignment for the benefit of creditors (ABC)
    A state-law alternative to bankruptcy: the company hands its assets to an assignee, who sells them without a bankruptcy court. US
    CCAA
    Canada's Companies' Creditors Arrangement Act, used to restructure larger companies under court supervision. Canada
    Voluntary administration
    An administrator takes control to work out whether the company can be saved. Creditors then vote on a deal or on liquidation. Australia

    When a company has gone

    Dissolved or struck off
    The company has been removed from the official register and no longer legally exists. It cannot sign anything, including a licence. All countries
    Bona vacantia
    Latin for "ownerless goods". When a UK company is dissolved, property it still owned usually passes to the Crown, or to the Duchy of Lancaster or Duchy of Cornwall. UK
    Restoration
    Putting a dissolved company back on the register so that its property can be dealt with again. Canada calls it revival. Rules and time limits depend on the country. UK, Ireland, Australia, Canada
    Deregistration
    Removal of an Australian company from ASIC's register. Property it still owned generally vests in ASIC. Australia

    Data and licensing

    Operational records
    Everyday working material: support tickets, project histories, internal guides, sales pipeline activity and team chat. These show how work was done.
    Personal data
    Any information about an identifiable person, such as a name, email address or HR file. Data protection law (for example GDPR in the UK and EU, PIPEDA in Canada, the Privacy Act in Australia) still applies after a company closes.
    De-identification
    Removing or masking names, contact details and anything else that could identify a person, so what remains shows patterns of work, not people.
    Data licence
    Permission to use records for agreed purposes and on agreed terms. Unlike a sale, the terms can limit what the buyer may do with the data.
    Peak employees
    The highest number of people the company employed at any one time. micro1's defunct-company track asks for 30 or more.
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