Introduction
The Cessation of Entity Wizard enables you to register a Company/Business Entity as inactive in the system where for example, a Company/Business Entity has been dissolved, liquidated, or has ceased trading. The wizard coordinates the steps necessary to wrap up relevant entity data and effectively resolve the entity’s status to inactive/archived. All actions taken by the wizard are tracked in the audit trail.
This guide provides step-by-step instructions on how to open and complete the Cessation of Entity Wizard in GEMS.
Cessation of Entity Wizard
To use the Cessation of Entity Wizard to complete the dissolution of an entity record, proceed as follows:
On the search bar on any GEMS screen, choose the Wizard option in the "Search GEMS for" field and enter "cessation" into the "Value" field.
Click the Search button to open the Wizard search tab containing the search results.
On the search results screen, click the Cessation of Entity Wizard link to launch the wizard in a modal window.
Please note: For easy access, the Cessation of Entity Wizard may also be added as an associated action to the Snapshot Menu.
Step 1: Introduction
The wizard opens on the Step 1: Introduction screen. If desired, select this as a favorite wizard, and choose to skip the introduction step in the future. Then click Next.
Step 2: General Details
In Step 2: General Details, enter the "Entity to cease" using the available Lookup List icon.
Please note: Only Companies/Business Entities with a status designated as "Current" will be returned in the Lookup List for the "Entity to cease" field.
In the “Status of Ceased Entity” field, select the entity status from the Lookup List of non-current status descriptions – the canceled entity can only have a non-current status after the cessation is complete.
Select the date that the new inactive status will be effective from.
Enter any notes relating to the entity’s new inactive status if necessary and select the “Status Confirmed” checkbox.
Where relevant the “Reporting Status of Ceased Entity’” is updated based on the status of the ceased entity chosen such as Dissolved, Merged, etc. It may also be manually updated.
The “Date New Reporting Status Effective From” is updated automatically based on the "Date New Status Effective" field. It can also be updated manually.
In the “Reason for Cessation” field, enter any additional information about why the entity is being canceled.
Select the “Archive Ceased Entity” checkbox if this entity’s corporate record should be archived. You may wish to keep the entity un-archived temporarily after the cessation if additional details need to be manually added to the entity record.
In the “Cessation Contact” field, the user can select the name of a Person or Company/Business Entity who can be contacted for information about the entity’s cessation if necessary.
In the “Contact Type” field, choose the type that best describes the Person or Company/Business Entity selected if a Cessation Contact was entered.
After completing the General Details step, click Next.
Step 3: Cessation Options
Step 3: Cessation Options determines which active records will be wrapped up and marked with an Effective To date as specified in Step 2. The Wizard steps through all the available Cessation attributes, including the mass resignation of appointments, the cancelation of Certificates and Disposal of Share Classes, the update and withdrawal of all current Registrations & Licenses, the wrap-up of Addresses, Contacts, Communication, and Notes.
To see the number of records that will be affected, there is a “Current Entity Records Report” link at the top of the page that will launch a brief entity summary of active records.
If you have not selected the “Archive Ceased Entity” option, you can access the Appointments section at after completing the Cessation Wizard to resign the entity’s appointments.
In the Securities Management section, if creating the Disposal Transaction now, select the Disposal Transaction Type from the dropdown list.
Please note: Transaction types are determined by the jurisdiction, so the list that appears may not contain the same options as in the following figure.
Similarly, in the “Registrations & Licenses” section, select entries for the fields "Update Trade Name Status To," "Update Foreign Registrations Status To," and "Update Other Registration Status To."
Click Next to move to the next step on the wizard.
Step 4: Severance Validation
Step 4: Severance Validation indicates whether there are current data records on the Entity requiring manual intervention and cleanup. This occurs if the entity being ceased has a relationship with a different entity in some manner, such as if the entity is appointed to another entity as a Trust. Each section will display "Yes" if there are still current records that cannot be accommodated by the Cessation Wizard.
Take note of the instructions at the foot of the screen. If you do not make these changes, you will leave current associations attached to this entity, and other entities. This will cause data validity issues. At this point, the wizard can either be canceled and data amended or notes should be made of what must be updated once the wizard has finished.
Click Next to move to step 5 of the wizard.
Step 5: Attach Documents
On Step 5: Attach Document(s), users attach any documents related to the cessation of the Entity. This step is not mandatory.
When you click the Attach Documents button, a new screen is opened enabling you to set up the details for the document to be attached.
To attach a document to be used in the wizard, click the Attach link and select the document from a location on your computer. Click Next to move to the final step of the wizard.
Step 6: Finish
In Step 6: Finish, the information relating to the cessation of the entity is provided.
Click Finish to complete the Cessation wizard.