What families say about the work, once it is done

My father passed away in April and none of us had any idea where his papers were. We found certificates in one drawer, insurance policies in another and something that looked like a share certificate at the back of a cabinet. Siew Lin came for two hours and produced a list that covered everything. When we met our solicitor the following week, we had the inventory open on the table. He commented that it made the conversation considerably easier than most. I was relieved not to have to explain things from scratch.

My mother had lived in the same house for forty years and the paperwork had simply accumulated. There were four boxes that nobody had opened since my father died in 2011. The coordinator worked through everything over about three months. What she produced at the end — the orientation document — is something I can hand to my brother or to a lawyer without any explanation. The physical files are now labelled and organised in a way that actually makes sense. We also have a list of questions we need to put to an estate administrator, which was helpful.

We had my grandmother's jewellery, her sewing machine, some old family photographs and a trunk of letters in Jawi script — none of it catalogued, none of it described anywhere. The programme took about six weeks and now we have a printed catalogue with photographs of every piece, a description and whatever we could tell the coordinator about where each item came from. The Jawi letters are noted as needing a specialist — which is an honest observation and one that helps us know what the next step is. I am glad we did this before the family discussions about what should happen to everything became difficult.

My parents' house is in Kepong and I am based in Singapore. I did the session by video call, carrying my phone through the rooms while the coordinator directed me and took notes. The session was two hours and she sent me the inventory two days later. It was clear, it covered everything and it told me exactly what I had and what I could not find. I could walk into my appointment with a lawyer in KL the following month knowing what we were dealing with.

My family spent three months with Priya going through my late husband's office at home and then the house more broadly. He had run a small business from home for twenty years and the records for that were mixed in with our personal papers. She separated everything, scanned the business documents, organised the personal records and wrote an orientation document that I have now shared with my two children and my accountant. The three walkthrough sessions were useful — it meant all three of us understood where everything was, not just me.

Honest work. The coordinator was clear from the beginning about what she would and would not do. She described and photographed each object, noted the condition, and wrote down what we told her about the history. She did not try to tell us what things were worth or what we should do with them. The printed catalogue is something my children will still be able to read in twenty years. The only thing I would say is that the sessions take longer than I expected when you have a lot of objects — but that is because it is done carefully, not carelessly.