Zaira. $400? You jest!
Some of the hourly rates for a small town bit liquidator are in front of me: Junior $61.60; Typist $84.70; Clerk $96.80; Secretary $115.50; Supervisor $188.10; right up to Registered Liquidator $321.20 and Partner $418.00. And that's a small time Liquidator only, not those with addresses at the big end of town.
Unless you are talking about the office junior, I think your $400 per hour is a gross underestimate of the fees for a liquidator at the big end of town.
Let me explain how the rape and pillage works. You employ an office junior for around $20,000 per year with on costs. You then bill 36 hours per week, 48 weeks per year and get $106,444 return - which makes for a very modest profit of $86,444 per annum, or around 400% markup. Of course, when you get to the Supervisor, the profit is over a quarter of a million bucks per year. The trick is to get as many people working on the Liquidation as possible.
Having a cast of thousands all working on the liquidation, the next trick is to establish how long the cash reserves will last before you are forced to start selling assets to meet liquidators fees. Sell assets too soon and you may be forced to complete the liquidation and - help! no! - pay a dividend to creditors.
In time, you are then able to write a Liquidator's Report to Creditors that concludes with the words "I advise that there will not be a return to ordinary unsecured creditors."
And with the bank account and assets gone, there endeth another successful liquidation!
Last edited by Torres; 21st Jul 2003 at 12:31.