# Estate Records: What Origin Does for Trustees and Assignees > For Chapter 7 trustees, ABC assignees, receivers and estate counsel: a free buyer check on a debtor's operating records, paid by the buyer, with no fee to you. Canonical: https://origindatapartners.com/guides/estate-records-for-trustees-and-assignees By: Origin Data Partners Status: Published Published: 2026-11-13 Updated: 2026-11-13 Sources checked: 2026-11-13 ## Quick answer A debtor's operating records, such as work orders, engineering files, claim and loan files, can be estate property with a buyer. Origin checks, at no cost to the estate, whether an AI developer wants the archive and at roughly what range, and helps prepare the data description and de-identification plan for a sale. Any proceeds go to the estate. Origin is paid by the buyer, not by the estate, discloses that compensation, and pays nothing to a trustee, debtor in possession, assignee, receiver, examiner, estate counsel or other estate professional personally. ## Key points - Benefit to the estate only: a buyer check and sale preparation at no cost to the estate. - No personal payment of any kind to a trustee, debtor in possession, assignee, receiver, examiner or any professional employed by the estate. - Origin's own compensation comes from the buyer and is disclosed in any motion it supports. - Preserve the systems first: deleted records cannot be sold. ## What the estate gets A trustee's first duty is to "collect and reduce to money the property of the estate" ([11 U.S.C. 704](https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/11/704)). Business records that schedules list with no value may now have a buyer. Origin does the work that tells you whether they do: - A buyer check: whether AI developers want this kind of archive, and the range published programmes and reported deals suggest. - An inventory outline: systems, years, volumes, and what links the records together. - A data description and de-identification plan you can use in a sale motion, and a note on whether consumer personal information brings in the privacy ombudsman process. - Introductions to buyers who bid for the records, with the estate deciding on any sale and the court approving it where required. ## How Origin is paid, and what you are never offered Origin is paid by the buyer if a sale or licence closes, never by the estate. We disclose that compensation in any motion or sale document we help prepare, so the court and creditors can see it. Where the trustee wants Origin to work for the estate, that is on terms the court approves where approval is required ([11 U.S.C. 327](https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/11/327) and 328), and Origin discloses any payment it may receive from a buyer. We offer and pay nothing to a trustee, debtor in possession or its officers, assignee, receiver, examiner, estate counsel or any other professional employed by the estate personally, for anything in a case. Federal law makes it a crime to knowingly and fraudulently give, offer or receive "any money or property, remuneration, compensation, reward, advantage, or promise thereof for acting or forbearing to act in any case under title 11" ([18 U.S.C. 152(6)](https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/18/152)), and the Bankruptcy Code limits sharing compensation ([11 U.S.C. 504](https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/11/504)). If you also advise operating companies outside any case, that is a separate relationship, and it never touches an estate you serve. ## How a records sale works The trustee "after notice and a hearing, may use, sell, or lease, other than in the ordinary course of business, property of the estate" ([11 U.S.C. 363](https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/11/363)). Consumer personal information is the restricted part. Our [363 sale guide for debtor data](https://origindatapartners.com/guides/sell-debtor-data-363-sale) covers the ombudsman, objections and the Spirit Airlines docket. In an assignment for the benefit of creditors there is no 363 order: see [selling company data in an ABC](https://origindatapartners.com/guides/company-data-assignment-for-benefit-of-creditors). ## First steps for a new case Do these before any system is switched off. - Keep the cloud accounts and servers paid until the records are exported or sold. - List each system with the first and last year of records, and who still has admin access. - Flag personal information, customers' and vendors' confidential data and anything export-controlled. - Ask us for a buyer check: a description of the records is enough, with no files. [Describe the records](https://origindatapartners.com/check-fit#company-review). ## Questions and answers ### Does Origin pay trustees or assignees for introducing an estate? No. Origin offers and pays nothing to a trustee, debtor in possession, assignee, receiver, examiner, estate counsel or other estate professional personally. The benefit goes to the estate. ### Who pays Origin? The buyer, if a sale or licence closes. The estate pays nothing, and Origin discloses its compensation in any motion it helps prepare. ### Can a trustee sell a debtor's business records? Often, as estate property under section 363(b) after notice and a hearing. Consumer personal information is restricted, and third parties may object over their confidential data. ### What does a buyer check need from the estate? A description: which systems, how many years, roughly how many records and what links them. No files leave the estate's control before a sale is approved. ## Sources - [11 U.S.C. 704 (duties of trustee)](https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/11/704) - [11 U.S.C. 363 (use, sale, or lease of property)](https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/11/363) - [18 U.S.C. 152 (concealment of assets; false oaths and claims; bribery)](https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/18/152) - [11 U.S.C. 504 (sharing of compensation)](https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/11/504) ## Related reading - [363 Sale of Debtor Data: Guide for Trustees and ABCs](https://origindatapartners.com/guides/sell-debtor-data-363-sale) - [Business bankruptcy: Chapter 7, Chapter 11 and your data](https://origindatapartners.com/guides/business-bankruptcy-company-data) - [How to de-identify company data before licensing it](https://origindatapartners.com/guides/de-identify-company-data-before-licensing)