Recovery

What is Recovery?
Most large accountancy firms have a recovery department. They are sometimes called Restructuring or something like Recovery and Reorganisation. These departments typically fall into the Advisory division of large professional services firms like Deloitte, KPMG and Grant Thornton.

These departments undertake formal corporate and individual insolvency appointments. They also carry out solvency reviews of companies, usually on behalf of a secured lender.

Corporate insolvency appointments usually involve a failed business, and are normally terminal. The professional services firm works to sell off or otherwise liquidate the company's assets, and distribute the proceeds to creditors.

It goes without saying that Recovery departments do extremely well during recessions. Recent high profile insolvencies include PwC's appointment over Lehman Brothers Inc, the failed bank and Grant Thornton's work with the UK arm of Bernie Madoff's $50bn ponzi scheme. Working in this field can give you experience in trading a company, selling assets, dealing with creditors of all shapes and sizes, and potentially fraud investigation.

The experience and career on offer in Recovery are great, however there are a number of things to keep in mind when applying. Graduates working on formal appointments will have a lot of administrative and correspondence work to do, and spend minimal time looking at accounts and financial control systems. They are also unlikely to learn how to successfully run a business, but may get an insight into how to prevent one failing. It can be tough dealing with creditors and redundant employees, however this gives graduates the chance to develop their soft skills early on.

When applying, make sure you understand the basics of insolvency.