Your clients arrive with the file
already built.
A records bureau arrangement for solicitors, IFAs and accountants. We locate, index and standardise the client's records to the Estate Standard 2026 — so your fact-find starts clean and your file comes to you complete.
Enquiries only. Professional terms and a data-processing agreement are agreed before any client is referred.
We do the records. You keep the advice — and the client relationship.
What it does for your practice
The bureau handles the part of the work that consumes your fee-earners' time but rarely needs their judgement — locating, chasing and organising the client's records to one consistent standard.
Cleaner fact-finds
Clients arrive with their records already located, named and indexed to the Estate Standard 2026 — not a carrier bag of paper. Your first meeting starts where it used to end.
Fewer missing documents
We chase the structural gaps before they reach you — an unrecorded account, a missing policy number, an LPA that was never registered — so files come to you complete.
One consistent format
Every client file is built to the same standard and the same index. Your team reads file twelve the way it reads file one. No house style to relearn per client.
Export packs, on request
A structured records pack — physical and digital readiness, indexed and dated — handed to you in a predictable shape, ready to drop into your own matter file.
Where the bureau stops
Signum is a records and readiness bureau. It standardises and organises the client's records — it does not advise the client, and it is not a substitute for your retainer. You retain full responsibility for client advice and any reserved work.
- Locate, gather and organise your records
- Index and name them to the Estate Standard 2026
- Chase missing structural details — a missing policy number, an unrecorded account
- Draft your will from your instructions (an unreserved service)
- Compile your physical and digital readiness dossier
- Issue a Readiness Letter: what exists, what's missing, what to do next
- Explain, in general terms, how inheritance tax, probate and LPAs work
- Keep it current and schedule reviews
- Personal recommendations on your pensions, investments or insurance (regulated financial advice)
- Bespoke inheritance-tax planning, or interpreting trust structures
- Probate, grant applications, or estate administration (a reserved legal activity)
- Acting as your executor or representative
The bureau never advises your client or acts on their behalf. Reserved and regulated work remains yours, on your retainer and your regulator's terms.
Confidentiality and reliability
Data processing on terms
We act as a processor under a signed data-processing agreement. Scope, retention and deletion are defined in writing before any client data moves.
Confidentiality by default
Client records are held in confidence, segregated by matter, and never used to market to your client behind your back. Your relationship stays yours.
A defined response
Bureau arrangements run to an agreed turnaround and a named point of contact — so you can tell a client when their records will be ready, and be right.
How an arrangement runs
Terms first, then clients. Nothing about your clients moves until the data terms are signed.
Scoping call
We map your client mix, the records you most often wait on, and the format your matter files need. No commitment.
Data terms first
A data-processing agreement and engagement terms are agreed and signed before a single client is referred. Nothing runs ahead of the paperwork.
Referral, both ways
You refer a client to the bureau, or we route a household to you where regulated or reserved work is needed. The line is defined in the terms.
Standardised handover
The client's records are built and indexed, then handed to you as an export pack — consistent, dated, and ready for your file.
Bureau arrangements are priced per practice — by client volume, the records involved and the export format you need. There is no off-the-shelf plan and nothing to buy here: we agree scope, a data-processing agreement and a defined turnaround with you first. Start with a scoping call and we'll put a written proposal in front of you.
Discuss a bureau arrangement.
A short scoping call for your practice. We'll map where the bureau saves your fee-earners time, and what a terms-first arrangement would involve — no commitment, no client data until the paperwork is signed.
Discuss a bureau arrangementActing for yourself, or one household? See the household bureau →