Seven stages. You pay at stage four, and only once we know we can help.
The whole journey is designed around one principle: we never hold money we do not yet know we can earn. Everything that could stop an audit is asked before you pay, not after.
You get in touch
A short enquiry: who you are, the firm's name, roughly where the estate has got to, and what is worrying you. No case documents at this stage, deliberately.
We acknowledge within 1 working day.
We check we can actually help, free
We ask for just two documents: the firm's client care letter or terms of business, and the most recent substantive letter you hold. From those we check the things that decide whether an audit can work: who regulates the firm, your relationship to it, whether the file can be obtained, and whether anything in the firm's terms affects the exercise. If we cannot help, we tell you so, with the reason, and it has cost you nothing.
Verdict within 3 working days of the two documents arriving.
We talk it through
Thirty to forty-five minutes by phone or video. We confirm what the screen found, walk you through the published sample report so you can see exactly what £299 buys, explain what an audit cannot do, and answer your questions. The price is fixed and is not negotiated, which keeps the conversation honest.
Offered within 5 working days.
You sign up
Terms signed, £299 paid securely by card, a short identity check, and one signature appointing Destiny Advisory Ltd as your investigating agent, with authority for the firm to release your file. Your matter gets a reference that contains no names and no dates, so it is safe in any email subject line.
Same day, all electronic.
We obtain the file
We write to the firm as your appointed agent, enclosing your signed authority, and ask for the file. The letter explains, with sources, why you are entitled to it: your papers are in general your property, and data protection law entitles you to a copy of your personal data within a month. If the firm drags its feet, we prepare the follow-up for your own signature, which is the request a firm cannot lawfully ignore.
Request sent within 2 working days of your appointment. The firm's speed is outside our control; we chase at 14 days and escalate the approach at 28.
The audit itself
Every document is extracted, read and cross-referenced. We establish what regulates the firm, build the timeline, identify the silent periods, check the tax route, trace every asset and liability, analyse the fees, and compare the whole administration against published standards, test by test. The finished report arrives as a polished PDF by email and as a printed, bound copy by first-class post, both included.
Ten working days from the day the document set is complete. We tell you the day that clock starts.
What happens next is yours to choose
A follow-up call is included: we walk you through the findings and make sure the options section is understood. The report lists the routes that exist in your situation, from a written complaint to the firm through to the complaints schemes and the courts, each with its time limit and its source. It does not tell you which to take: that choice is yours, if you wish with independent legal advice, and the report is written to be taken to a specialist solicitor if that is where you decide to go.
Call offered within 5 working days of delivery.
Occasionally a file arrives so incomplete or illegible that a full audit is impossible. If that happens you choose: a Provisional Audit clearly labelled as such, or your money back. The feasibility screen at stage two exists to make this rare.