Plain prices. No retainer,
no surprises.
Most people start with one guided Build. Intake is free: send us your details and we reply by email, or book the free 20-minute call. Finding out what's involved costs you nothing, and there's no obligation to go ahead.
Start your intake — freeThree doors. Start where your household is.
Everything Signum offers sits behind one of three doors. Records built and kept, a will drafted from your instructions, or the groundwork of an estate, with the probate application made by a separate regulated firm. Each is priced in writing before you commit, and finding out which you need is free: send us your details, or book the 20-minute call.
The household file your executor, attorney and family will one day need — built for you, kept current year on year.
A legally binding will for England & Wales — drafting from your instructions is a service Signum provides directly.
When an estate must actually be administered — Signum does the groundwork; a separate regulated firm, named in your written quote, makes the probate application and files any IHT400, for its own fee, set out beside ours in that quote.
Built once. Kept current.
Tell us where things stand — answer online, or take the call. We scope the work and tell you exactly what a Build would involve — and what it would cost.
If you want to scope the work before committing.
- Answer online, or take a 20-minute call — same intake, either way
- We map what your household needs
- A clear, specific records request list
- A plain quote for your Build — no obligation
Your first record set built for you, in one guided build.
If you want the file built. This is where most people start.
- Everything from your free intake
- A guided Build Session (60–90 minutes)
- Your first record set built for you — Operating Brief, Authority Register, Designated Places, Records Roadmap
- A Readiness Letter — what exists, what's missing, what's next
- One follow-up review
Your records kept current, reviewed, and routed — year on year.
If your file exists and you want it kept current.
- Your records kept current
- Annual review and a refreshed Readiness Letter
- Trusted-person routing kept live
- Priority queue
For complex households — property, business interests, cross-border, dependants.
If your household is complex and wants a named contact.
- Build and Stewardship
- Deeper verification and a document-location audit
- A named escalation contact
- Coordination across solicitor, accountant and adviser steps, run from one named contact (each professional step is quoted separately)
Stewardship and Private Office both begin with a Build. There's no tier to "upgrade into" mid-way — you build the file once, then choose whether we keep it current.
Drafted from your instructions.
Will-drafting from your instructions is an unreserved service Signum provides directly. Start a will online →
When the estate must actually be administered.
Every estate starts free: send us your details, or book the 20-minute call. We say which parts Signum would do, which part a regulated firm must do by law, and what each is likely to cost. The figures above are estimates of the whole job: Signum's groundwork and the regulated firm's application together, with the court fee on top. Preparing the probate application and any IHT400 is reserved by law to regulated firms, so a separate regulated firm, named in your written quote, does that part under its own agreement with you. You sign two written agreements, never one, and you see both prices before you commit to either. Enquiries and calls are open now; estate work starts only once the written quote, from both Valoren and the firm, is agreed.
Valoren is not registered for VAT, so no VAT is added to Signum's fee and none is hidden in it; the firm's fee may include VAT. The court fee, £526 in England and Wales for an estate worth more than £5,000, is paid to the court on top of both fees and never passes through Valoren. You pay us for our part and the firm for its part, directly. Valoren holds no estate money and no client money. Signum's fee is never a percentage of the estate and never an hourly meter.
What the market actually charges.
Four facts, each sourced and dated — so "transparent pricing" is something you can check, not just a line we say.
A bank acting as executor charges a percentage: Barclays up to 4.5%, RBS 4%, Lloyds 2.5% on the first £1m, all before VAT. On a £500,000 estate that is a five-figure fee before any work is itemised.
The official guideline rate for a senior solicitor is £288–£579 an hour before VAT, and City firms bill £500–£900. Signum's own fees are fixed in writing, so an hourly rate never appears on our bill.
For cross-border wills, resealing, cross-option agreements and family investment companies, virtually no UK firm publishes a price at all. We publish every one. That fact is the comparison.
Nearly every solicitor price you'll see advertised is exclusive of VAT — 20% arrives at invoice. Valoren is not registered for VAT, so none is added to Signum's own fees; where an estimate includes a regulated firm's fee, the firm's fee may include VAT.
A free assistant that explains how it all works, drafts your will from your answers, and helps organise what you have — then hands the rest to the desk, which quotes in writing before any work begins. Where the law reserves a step — the probate application — a separate regulated firm does it, under its own agreement with you. Personal recommendations on pensions, investments or insurance come from a regulated financial adviser you engage directly.
If you only want one thing
Several sessions are also available on their own — no tier required. Some are already folded into a Build or Stewardship.
Not sure which you need? The free 20-minute intake call will tell you — a genuine scoping conversation, not a sales pitch.
For an estate you sign two written agreements, never one.
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.
Start your intake.
Free either way: send us your details and we reply by email, or book the free 20-minute call. No obligation.
Start your intake — free