What families say about working with Legacia.

We brought Legacia in about three weeks after my mother passed. There was paperwork everywhere — different properties, different relatives holding different things — and nobody in the family had the capacity to start sorting it. The consolidation project took around six weeks. What came back was a properly indexed archive and a physical folder set I could actually hand to the solicitor. He remarked on how well organised it was.

I took on the retainer after my father died because I quickly realised I was going to be managing correspondence with four different institutions for the next year. Having someone keep a proper log and prepare the paperwork packs was worth it. The monthly summaries were useful for tracking what was still outstanding. One thing I'd say: be thorough in the initial call about exactly what you need — the scope is quite specific, which is fine once you understand it.

We needed an inventory of my late uncle's property before a decision was made about what to do with the contents. The half-day visit was quiet and methodical. The administrator who came was clearly experienced — she didn't rush, didn't make any comments on what she was recording, just worked through the rooms systematically. The catalogue arrived exactly a week later and covered everything we'd agreed.

The thing that surprised me most was the section at the back of the consolidation report describing documents that were not found but might reasonably be expected. That list prompted us to make enquiries with two more relatives, and one of them did have documents we hadn't known about. I hadn't expected Legacia to flag what was missing, but it turned out to be the most practically useful part of the whole exercise.

My brother and I were handling everything jointly, which meant two people needing to be kept informed. The retainer worked well for that — one contact, one log, monthly summaries that we could both read. I found the telephone support useful during a particularly busy month when things were moving quickly. The administrator knew the file and didn't need everything explained from the start, which matters when you're already stretched.

We started with an inventory session to understand what was in my grandmother's home, and that gave us a clear enough picture to know we also needed the consolidation project for the documents. The two fitted together well. Having the reference codes carry across both jobs meant everything was traceable. We haven't had any problems finding documents since — the family can actually locate things when a professional asks for them.