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What actually happens when an Australian business fails?

Not the sanitised version. The real one - the day-one phone calls, the employees demanding wages to put food on the table that night, the childcare centres where a commercial decision becomes a moral one, and the directors who waited six months too long to pick up the phone.

In this episode I sit down with Glenn Livingstone, founding partner of WLP Restructuring - one of Australia's fastest-growing independent insolvency firms. Glenn has nearly two decades in the profession, over 1,000 formal appointments, and $64.8 million returned across every class of creditor since co-founding WLP out of COVID in 2021.

But before any of that - Glenn first read a creditors report at age 13. His father had just lost his entitlements in a corporate collapse. The liquidator recovered $400,000. Their fees were $400,000. That moment chose his career for him.

This conversation goes well beyond the mechanics of insolvency. It's honest, commercially sharp, and at times genuinely moving.

🏗️ Building WLP from Nothing

• Walking away from KPMG during COVID to start an independent firm with three people and no guaranteed work
• How WLP landed 4 voluntary administration appointments in its first week

⚠️ Early Warning Signs of Business Distress

• The financial red flags directors consistently ignore until it's too late
• Why the ATO has functioned as a de facto bank for struggling SMEs - and why that era is ending fast
• Why directors wait too long - and what it costs them when they do

🚨 Payday Super: The Coming Reckoning

• Why the introduction of payday super is "a little bit frightening" from an insolvency perspective
• What the closure of clearing houses means for businesses already under pressure
• Why this change won't increase the number of insolvencies - but will dramatically accelerate their timing

🔄 The Small Business Restructuring Regime

• Why SBR was a genuine game changer for viable businesses in distress
• Why the ATO is now rejecting proposals it used to wave through and what that means for directors
• The one-shot nature of SBR - and why botching it is catastrophic
• The uncomfortable question nobody in the profession is asking yet about the 2023-24 SBR cohort

⚖️ Insolvent Trading & Section 588G

• Whether Australia's insolvent trading regime is actually working as intended
• Why 588G plays completely differently for SME directors versus ASX-listed companies
• How liquidators decide when to pursue insolvent trading claims - and when it's simply uneconomic

😔 The Human Side of Appointments

• What day one actually looks like inside a failing business - the staff, the suppliers, the distress
• Why childcare appointments are among the hardest in the profession
• How to stay calm when employees are demanding money

📰 Media, Scrutiny & High Profile Collapses

• The role media plays in major administrations - when it helps versus hurts
• How administrators navigate the press when a high-profile business goes under
• The story of Daryl Lee chocolates - and how a media announcement accidentally saved the business

Glenn Livingstone is one of the most commercially pragmatic and genuinely human practitioners in Australian insolvency. This is the conversation most directors never have - until it's too late.

If you're a director, founder, accountant, lawyer, or creditor - this episode will change how you think about business distress.

Connect with Glenn: wlpr.com.au

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