Who does what,
on the record.
Signum is Valoren's case-work desk, working to the Estate Standard 2026. Valoren is not a law firm and is not regulated. The most useful thing we can tell you is exactly who does which step — so you always know who is acting, and who answers for it.
Anyone can promise to help. We'd rather tell you the line.
The boundary, in full
Two columns, no small print. Everything Signum does itself, and everything that must be done by a separate regulated firm or adviser, under its own agreement with you.
- 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
- 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.
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.
Why we draw it so plainly
The boundary isn't a limitation we apologise for. It's the reason the work is reliable.
The line is the law, not our policy
Preparing the papers for a probate application is reserved by law to regulated firms. Personal financial recommendations sit behind the FCA perimeter. We don't decide where the line is — we keep to the right side of it, and your written quote tells you plainly which side each step falls on.
Records are where families actually get stuck
When someone dies or loses capacity, the reserved step rarely fails first. What fails is finding the policy, the password, the deed, the executor's name. That's the gap Signum is built to close — none of that work is reserved to anyone, so the desk simply does it, properly.
Two agreements, and the choice is yours
A reserved step is quicker to settle on an organised file. You sign two written agreements, never one. One is with Valoren, for the groundwork we do ourselves. The other is with a separate regulated firm, for the probate application and any tax account. Signum's schedule of figures goes to the firm with your written consent, so the firm is not starting from nothing and you are not asked the same questions twice. The firm is named in your written quote, and you may choose a different one.
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.
- Explains inheritance tax, probate, LPAs and the rest in plain terms
- Drafts a will from your instructions (unreserved)
- Helps organise and name your records to ES-2026
- Flags what's missing and what to ask a professional about
It never makes a personal financial recommendation and never does reserved legal work itself. Where the law reserves a step — the probate application — a separate regulated firm does it, under its own agreement with you.
An Engagement Lead, not a queue
From your enquiry onward, one Engagement Lead owns Signum's part of your file — the Build Session and Readiness Letter if that is what you came for, the groundwork if an estate is being administered. They set out in writing which steps are Signum's own and which a regulated firm must do by law. That firm, named in your written quote, works under its own agreement with you and is your contact for its own work. With your written consent, your Lead hands it a complete, organised file. You don't get passed around, and you never have to wonder who's responsible for the line.
Start with a free intake.
Send us a few details about where things stand and we reply by email. Prefer to talk? Book a free 20-minute call from the menu. Either way, we tell you which parts Signum would do, which part, if any, a regulated firm must do by law, and what each is likely to cost. Enquiries and calls are open now; estate work starts only once the written quote, from both Valoren and the firm, is agreed. No obligation.
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