Trustee in bankruptcy’s Remuneration

The trustee in bankruptcy (trustee) will usually look to the estate for their remuneration. The remuneration of the trustee is an expense of the Bankruptcy payable according to the Waterfall provided for in the Insolvency (England and Wales) Rules 2016 (IR 2016), SI 2016/1024 before any distribution is made to any creditor.

Where the estate is insufficient to cover the trustee’s remuneration and the trustee has expended skill and labour on assets held by the bankrupt on trust for others, it may be possible to recoup remuneration for that activity from those trust assets. However, that is dependent on the discretion of the court (see Re Berkeley Applegate). In Bell v Birchall, the court refused to allow a trustee appointed over the bankruptcy estate of a solicitor to recover his costs and expenses incurred—and to be incurred—in connection with storing the solicitor's practice files and the reconciliation of sums held in the practice's client accounts. The solicitor's bankruptcy did not absolve him of his obligation to conduct an orderly winding