For the moments your records
suddenly have to work.
Households don't fail evenly. The demand concentrates at a handful of events — a death, a diagnosis, a parent's capacity, a change at home — when someone other than you may need the file. Signum builds it before then.
None of these moments leave time to go looking. The file should already exist.
Eight situations we build for
You don't need all of them to be true. One on the horizon is reason enough to have the records in order. For each, here are the records that matter — and how a Build helps.
A death in the family
The demands arrive together — usually before anyone has a stable account of what existed.
The will and where it's held, the executor named, the estate's accounts and policies, pensions, advisers, and the digital accounts that still need closing.
A Build assembles that file in advance, so an executor opens one dossier instead of searching a house. We index it to the Estate Standard 2026 and write a Readiness Letter: what exists, what's missing, what's next.
A parent losing capacity
They may still be present, but unable to make or communicate particular decisions.
The registered Lasting Power of Attorney, the named attorneys, and the line between property-and-financial authority and health-and-welfare authority — plus the bank and care-provider contacts that will ask for it.
A Build records where the LPA sits, who holds which authority, and the people an attorney will need to reach — so authority can be proven quickly rather than reconstructed under pressure. We explain, in general terms, how LPAs and the Mental Capacity Act framework work.
A serious diagnosis
A continuity event even where legal capacity is fully retained — the person is simply less available to run things.
The accounts, advisers, insurers and emergency contacts a household needs to keep functioning, plus a short-term authority register: who may act, and who should merely be kept informed.
A Build maps that household so day-to-day administration continues without anyone pretending incapacity has occurred. It keeps the family steady at the moment they most need a single, trusted file.
A new child or dependant
Responsibilities change; the records that carry them rarely update on their own.
Guardian appointments and where they're made, who holds parental responsibility, any trust provisions, and life-insurance and pension nominations checked against the new dependency.
A Build captures the guardian arrangement and the contacts who matter, and flags nominations that no longer match the household. Where a new or revised will is wanted, we can draft it from your instructions — an unreserved service.
Receiving an inheritance
An inheritance isn't complete when the asset arrives — only when your own records have absorbed it.
The form the asset takes — land, investments, business or trust interest — with its title, provider, valuation and adviser details, brought into your records rather than left as a separate estate file.
A Build classifies and integrates the new asset into one current index, and flags what an inheritance may put out of step. Where the tax or trust position needs interpreting, we coordinate that to a regulated professional rather than advise on it.
A divorce or remarriage
A relationship change can leave a household's authority map materially wrong, even before any institution asks for it.
The will and any contemplation-of-marriage wording, executor and guardian appointments, the LPA, pension and life-insurance nominations, property co-ownership, and who institutions should now contact.
A Build runs that review as a record cluster — checking what divorce or a new marriage may have hollowed out or revoked — and re-indexes the result. A revised will can be drafted from your instructions; regulated tax or financial questions are coordinated out.
An international relocation
Moving abroad can engage succession rules a UK household has never had to think about.
Where each asset sits, the wills covering each jurisdiction, and the questions a cross-border move raises about which law applies on death.
A Build assembles a clear, jurisdiction-aware record of what exists and where — and identifies the questions to put to a cross-border specialist. The specialist legal advice is theirs to give; the organised, briefable file is ours.
A business change
A sale, succession, or the loss of a key person can change the estate, the authority map, and the tax position at once.
Ownership structure, company or partnership documents, shareholders' or partnership agreements, bank mandates, valuations, advisers, debt facilities, and any relief evidence — checked against the will where the business is a major asset.
A Build is document-heavy by design here: it indexes the ownership and authority structure into one current file and notes where the will and the business no longer agree. Bespoke tax-relief planning is coordinated to a regulated adviser.
Whichever situation brings you here, the work is the same shape: one guided Build that turns scattered records into a file your family — or you, later — can actually use.
The line we never cross
Every situation above is records work — organising, indexing, drafting from your instructions. None of it is regulated advice. Where a moment needs that, we coordinate it to a professional, and say so plainly.
- 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
Where regulated or reserved work is needed — probate, a personal financial recommendation, complex tax — we coordinate it: a Signum specialist briefs a panel solicitor or adviser. The regulated work is always done by the regulated party.
Not sure which one you're in? Start with a 20-minute intake.
Free — a 20-minute call. We'll listen to your situation, tell you which records matter most, and scope exactly what a Build would involve, and what it would cost. No obligation.
Book a 20-minute intake