Ask whether the quoted scope includes reviewing the company structure, employment chronology and actual responsibilities. Do not assume a price for preparing forms includes resolving an unsettled operating model.
Separate company decisions from preparation services
The business must decide who will do the work. An adviser can assess the proposed arrangement but cannot supply missing operational facts. Clarify the scope before authorizing additional paid work.
Ask for the quote to be broken into three parts: assessing the facts as they stand, preparing the case once those facts are settled, and the work that would follow a request for further evidence. The middle part is usually the only one quoted, and it is the smallest. Internal time deserves the same treatment, because someone at the company will have to pull the share register, reconstruct the employment chronology and obtain signatures, and that person's availability is a schedule risk rather than a cost line.
Where the operating model is still unsettled, say so before authorising preparation, since describing an arrangement that then changes means paying twice for the same page. Ask as well what happens to the fee if the company withdraws the appointment midway. Scope for a withdrawn matter is rarely discussed at the outset, and the answer is easier to accept before the work begins than after a partial file has been assembled and set aside.