An “Oldie,” But a Goodie: Recommended Reading On the Subject of ABCs

An Assignment for the Benefit of Creditors (ABC) is a state law alternative to chapter 7 bankruptcy, chapter 11 bankruptcy, receivership, composition, or dissolution.

In “Assignments for the Benefit of Creditors: Simple as ABC?” Robert L. Eisenbach III provides a brief and clear summary of Assignment for the Benefit of Creditors (ABC) procedures. He illustrates the process usefully with a hypothetical scenario of a cash-negative company with insufficient money to fund further operations and no likely prospects for credit, and which has specific technology assets that a chapter 7 trustee might not liquidate efficiently. This latter consideration may be particularly important for any guarantor of the failing company’s debt.

Eisenbach notes that there are differences among states, and he applies the California statutory ABC to his hypothetical scenario. To learn about the alternatives is to empower yourself for optimal action when trouble comes.

For a case study under Illinois’s common law ABC process, read The Road to an Assignment for the Benefit of Creditors (ABC): A Case Study. For a 50-state survey of ABC procedures, plus receiverships, compositions, and workouts, see Strategic Alternatives for and Against Distressed Businesses (Jonathan Friedland, et al.  2022-2023 edition). Geoffrey Berman’s manual, General Assignments for the Benefit of Creditors: The ABCs of ABCs, also gives an excellent overview of ABCs. It provides a more extensive overview than the articles previously mentioned, but is shorter and more cost-effective than the full book.

Additionally, Russell C. Silberglied’s article Determining Whether or Not to Seek Court Approval of a Sale in a Delaware Assignment for the Benefit of Creditors Case analyzes the ABC process in Delaware and what factors regarding their court procedures should be considered when deciding to engage in an ABC.

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[Editors’ Note: To learn more about this and related topics, you may want to attend the following on-demand webinars (which you can listen to at your leisure and each include a comprehensive customer PowerPoint about the topic):

• Opportunity Amidst Crisis- Buying Distressed Assets, Claims, and Securities for Fun & Profit
• Help, My Business is In Trouble!
• Bad Debtor Owes Me Money!

This is an updated version of an article originally published on March 11, 2015]

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