CFO and Controller Services for Fiduciaries and Trustees
Vessel Advisors provides operational accounting and finance services and support to court-appointed fiduciaries — Chapter 11 and Chapter 7 trustees, federal and state court receivers, chief restructuring officers, ABC assignees, creditors' committees, and secured lenders overseeing distressed borrowers.
We take over the operational accounting, deliver what the court requires, and find the problems that put the business here.
Whether you are appointed as trustee, receiver, chief restructuring officer, or assignee, you take over an accounting function that was part of the problem — books that are behind or unreliable, weak cash controls, and records kept by the management whose conduct is often the subject of the case. The reporting obligations, meanwhile, begin immediately.
We are the accounting and finance team fiduciaries retain to carry that inheritance. Cash controls move to your authority on day one, the books get brought current, and receivables, payables, payroll, and tax keep running while we produce the deliverables the court and the creditors are waiting on — 13-week cash forecasts, DIP budgets, monthly operating reports, receiver reports, claims registers, and distribution schedules.
The records usually contain the explanation for the collapse, and part of our work is finding it: where the cash went, which transfers deserve counsel’s attention, and which numbers were managed rather than real. The same accounting work that keeps the estate compliant produces the record you need to act on what it finds.
Who We Serve
We work for trustees, receivers, CROs, assignees, creditors’ committees, and secured lenders.
Each page below covers the engagement in that role’s terms — the deliverables, the deadlines, and where we take work off your plate.
Chapter 11 Trustees & Examiners
DIP budgets, MORs, schedules & SOFA support, plan feasibility, forensic accounting. The finance bench a Chapter 11 trustee stands up on day one.
Chapter 7 Trustees
Asset marshaling, book reconstruction, 341(a) preparation, distribution schedules, and the forensic groundwork that supports avoidance-action decisions.
Federal & State Court Receivers
SEC and FTC equity receiverships. State-court commercial, health care, and real estate receiverships. First-day cash controls through wind-down or sale.
Chief Restructuring Officers
The controller and CFO layer beneath the CRO. Cash forecasting, lender reporting, MOR production, plan modeling — the throughput the CRO's mandate depends on.
ABC Assignees
Post-assignment operating and wind-down accounting, notice and claim reconciliation, sale-of-assets support, distribution schedules, and final tax filings.
Creditors' Committees & Secured Lenders
Independent financial advisor to committees challenging the debtor's numbers, and monitoring accountant to secured lenders overseeing distressed borrowers before or outside a proceeding.
Why Fiduciaries Retain Us
A fiduciary engagement demands six things of the accounting team behind it.
Independence
We take on no debtor-side work in the same case, hold no claim, and have no lending or investment relationship with the parties. Independence is a threshold requirement in a court-supervised engagement, and we treat it as such.
Court Fluency
We know what a U.S. Trustee's MOR review looks like, what a receivership court expects in the initial and interim reports, and what a Subchapter V small business trustee needs to sign off on. Our deliverables are formatted for the court, not translated for it.
Speed to Mobilize
Fiduciary engagements start on the day of appointment. We deploy inside the week, with a working team that can be at the debtor's or receiver-property books on Monday.
Cash-First Discipline
Every fiduciary engagement is cash-first: a 13-week rebuilt weekly, a DIP or receiver budget the court will hold everyone to, and a controls layer that closes down the leak points that put the estate in this position.
Forensic Capability
Reconstruction of incomplete or manipulated books. Tracing of transfers to insiders. Preference and fraudulent-transfer analysis that supports counsel's avoidance-action decisions. Not marketed as a specialty; delivered because these engagements demand it.
Confidentiality
Fiduciary work touches sensitive information about the estate, its counterparties, and often the prior management. Our engagements run under confidentiality expectations appropriate to a court-supervised process, and our people know how to work in them.
Standard Deliverables
Most fiduciary engagements draw from the same catalog of deliverables.
The mix depends on the case type and the professional retaining us.
- 13-Week Cash Forecast — rebuilt weekly with variance
- DIP Budget & Compliance — line-level, tied to the DIP order
- Monthly Operating Reports — U.S. Trustee format, on time
- Schedules & SOFA Support — coordinated with counsel
- Receiver Initial & Interim Reports — court-formatted
- Wind-Down Accounting — through final report and distribution
- Plan Feasibility & Projections — supportable, court-defensible
- Liquidation Analysis — best-interests test
- Book Reconstruction — where records are incomplete
- Preference & Fraudulent Transfer Analysis — for counsel
- Claims Reconciliation & Distribution Schedules
- Sale-of-Assets Financial Support — data room, working-capital analysis
How Engagements Start
Getting us into a case is simple.
Most fiduciary engagements begin with a call from the fiduciary or their counsel within days of the appointment or petition. We confirm no conflicts, sign the engagement letter, and put a working team on the books immediately. In receivership cases, we're often at the receiver-property site the following morning to establish cash controls and begin the initial-report work.
In Chapter 11 cases where the estate retains us, we file the required Rule 2014 disclosure and fee applications on schedule. Outside bankruptcy — in ABCs, receiverships, out-of-court restructurings, and lender-monitoring engagements — the engagement structure follows the fiduciary's own practice.
We do not solicit debtor-side work in cases where we're serving a fiduciary. That's not a marketing distinction; it's the basis on which fiduciaries retain us.
Adjacent Practices
When the company retains us instead.
The fiduciary practice is one of three related engagement types we run.
Turnaround CFO
When the company retains us directly to stabilize the business before a filing or receivership is on the table. 13-week cash, cost triage, lender workout.
Leading a Business Out of Bankruptcy
When the company is the debtor in a Chapter 11 or Subchapter V. DIP reporting, MORs, plan feasibility, post-confirmation build-out.
Work With Us
If a case on your desk needs the books run, cleaned up, or reported on, we can help.
Interim controller and CFO roles inside the business, reconstruction of neglected records, cash forecasting, and the reporting packages courts, lenders, and committees expect. Same-day response.
Schedule a Discovery Call
We’ll reach out within one business day.