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Signum · Questions

The questions people ask
before they trust us with this.

Plain answers, including the one that matters most — where the line is between what we do and what only a regulated professional can.

Each step is done by the person licensed for it, on the record. That line is the point.

FAQ

Plain answers, including the one that matters most.

Where your matter needs advice, you get it from someone qualified to give it. Signum's own work — locating, organising, indexing, drafting your will or lasting power of attorney from your instructions, and running an estate administration — is unreserved and needs no licence. Where a step is reserved — the papers a grant application is founded on, the inheritance-tax account behind it, a deed — it is prepared and settled by the qualified professional whose authorisation covers it, inside the same engagement. Personal recommendations on pensions, investments or insurance are arranged with a regulated financial adviser, separately. Signum itself is not a firm of solicitors, and engaging Signum does not create a solicitor-client relationship with Signum.
What Signum does itself
  • Locate, gather and index your records to the Estate Standard 2026
  • Chase missing structural details — a missing policy number, an unrecorded account
  • Draft your will or lasting power of attorney from your instructions (an unreserved service)
  • Gather what an administration needs — assets, debts, valuations, dates, beneficiaries
  • Chase the institutions and prepare the inventories, chronology and factual schedules
  • Issue a Readiness Letter: what exists, what's missing, what to do next
  • Explain, in general terms, how inheritance tax, probate and LPAs work
  • After the grant, help you collect, settle and distribute — and keep your records current year after year
What Signum never does itself
  • Preparing and submitting the probate application (a reserved legal activity)
  • The inheritance-tax account (IHT400), where one is needed for that application
  • The steps that turn on legal judgment — entitlement, capacity, a trust, a disputed will
  • Deeds relating to the estate — a deed of variation, a declaration of trust — generally reserved
  • Anything before a court — a caveat, a contested will, a Court of Protection application
  • Personal financial recommendations — arranged separately, with a regulated adviser
  • Acting as your executor, attorney or trustee — Signum never takes the role

Most of the work an estate needs — gathering, valuing, chasing institutions, drafting a will or a lasting power of attorney — needs no licence, and Signum does it. For an estate you sign two written agreements, never one. The first is with Valoren, for the groundwork Signum does itself. The second is with a separate regulated firm, for the probate application and, where one is needed, the inheritance tax account. The firm is named in your written quote. Both agreements, with both prices, are put in front of you before you commit to either. A deed, anything before a court, and personal recommendations on pensions, investments or insurance are never done by the desk: a solicitor or regulated adviser does them, under their own agreement with you. Valoren is not a law firm and is not regulated: no regulator, no Legal Ombudsman and no compensation fund cover our part. The firm's part is covered by its own regulator and the Legal Ombudsman. The regulated work is always done by the regulated party.

A Signum Build (£850, one-time) gives you a guided 60–90-minute Build Session, your first record set built for you — an Operating Brief, Authority Register, Designated Places and Records Roadmap — a Readiness Letter setting out what exists, what's missing and what's next, and one follow-up review. It starts with a free 20-minute intake call. Everything is built to the Estate Standard 2026 (ES-2026).
A named person at Signum who runs your engagement end to end — the same person across your intake, your Build Session and your Readiness Letter, so you are never re-explaining your situation to a queue. They set out in your engagement summary which steps the desk carries and which the qualified professional carries inside the same engagement, and stay your point of contact throughout, whoever is doing the step.
An Intake is scheduled within answered within 2 business days. After that, a Build is typically completed within about three weeks of your records being received — most of the work is the one guided session and the dossier we assemble around it. Complex households (property, a business, cross-border, dependants) take longer, and we tell you the realistic shape at Intake rather than after you've paid.
Yes. The intake call is free and carries no obligation — if, after the call, we agree Signum isn't the right fit, you simply don't go ahead. You are never locked in: a Build is a one-time engagement, and Stewardship — the optional annual upkeep — renews yearly and can be cancelled before any renewal. You keep your records and your Readiness Letter either way; they are yours.
Valoren is the do-it-yourself route — the same Estate Standard 2026, built by you, at your own pace. Signum is the done-for-you route: the same standard, built and kept for you by a person. Both are part of Standard Index Group. If you would rather do the work yourself, we will say so and point you to Valoren — we would rather route you honestly than sell you a service you don't need.

Prefer to do it yourself? Use Valoren ↗

Your records are confidential and held under UK GDPR. We collect only what a given record set genuinely needs, we never sell or share your data, and you can ask for it back or for its deletion. Sensitive originals stay with you — we index and reference where things live rather than hoarding copies — and access inside Signum is limited to the people working on your engagement. The full detail is in our Privacy notice.

Read the Privacy notice →

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