What households say about working with Silverfile.

The situation

Both had retired within six months of each other. They had three filing cabinets containing thirty years of statements, correspondence and policy documents — none of it sorted, none of it labelled. They knew roughly what they had but could not reliably find specific documents when needed.

What we did

Six sessions over six weeks. Session 1 agreed on five broad categories and a naming convention. Sessions 2–5 moved through one category per week. Session 6 reviewed the completed map, produced the open-questions list (seven items for their financial adviser) and handed over the template pack.

The result

Three filing cabinets reduced to one. A completed document map. A list of seven specific questions for their adviser — which they described as "the most useful thing from the whole programme." They handled all the physical filing themselves.

The situation

An adult daughter living in Singapore contacted us on behalf of her parents in Kuala Lumpur. Her father had recently had a health scare. The family had no clear picture of the household's paperwork, and the daughter was worried about what would happen to important documents if she was not there to help search for them.

What we did

The daughter attended the first two sessions by video call. The coordinator worked through the collection over 14 sessions across four months: inventory, scanning, indexing, labelling, archive established on the household's own cloud account and external drive. Two walkthrough sessions included the daughter by video. Final open-questions register had eleven items.

The result

A complete indexed archive, accessible from Kuala Lumpur and Singapore. An orientation document the daughter described as "something I could use the same week if I needed to." The eleven open-questions items were divided between their solicitor and financial planner.

The situation

A recently retired professional in Bangsar had been aware for some time that her paperwork needed sorting but was not convinced the effort involved was worth it. She was not sure whether her situation was complicated enough to warrant a structured programme, or simple enough to handle alone.

What we did

A single ninety-minute orientation session. The coordinator walked through the standard document categories and showed the example document map. Together they worked out that her collection was smaller than she thought — mainly concentrated in three areas. She left with the printed category guide and a written session summary.

The result

She decided not to proceed with a further programme — a completely acceptable outcome from our point of view. She used the category guide and the session summary to work through her collection herself over two weekends. She emailed to say it had taken about six hours and she was glad she had done the orientation first.