TONY HETHERINGTON: After 7 years, we’re nonetheless ready for Dad’s £200k

Tony Hetherington is Financial Mail on Sunday’s ace investigator, fighting readers corners, revealing the truth that lies behind closed doors and winning victories for those who have been left out-of-pocket. Find out how to contact him below. 

Ms I.A. writes: My two siblings and I inherited £320,000 from my father when he died in 2017. 

He employed Abacus Wills & Trusts Limited to prepare his will and set up a family trust, and he asked the company’s owner, Ms Tehsin Aslam, to be the executor. 

Eventually, she distributed £120,000 to us, with more due last December. But we heard nothing and believe we are still owed £200,000.

Tony Hetherington replies: Since you contacted me in January, there have been more twists and turns to this tale than you could expect from a barrel full of rattlesnakes. And more stings in the tail than you would get from a nest of wasps. I have never seen such a complete, confusing, contradictory mess made of a deceased’s estate.

Sheffield-based Abacus Wills & Trusts Limited no longer exists. Its director, Ms Tehsin Aslam, put it into liquidation in 2018 when it faced debts of about £68,000. I found an unsatisfied County Court Judgment against the company for £2,250.

In 2019, Aslam set up the similarly named Abacus Wills & Trusts Global Limited, now based in High Wycombe. It also has an unsatisfied court judgment against it, for £1,682.

Aslam was named as your father’s executor in the will she drafted in 2015, and her new firm took over obtaining a Grant of Probate and then distributing bequests. Applying for a Grant of Probate involves making a tax declaration. Aslam valued your father’s estate below £325,000, so less than the starting point for inheritance tax.

But she left out completely the value of a house your father owned in Wembley, North-West London, now said to be worth around £600,000.

Aslam told me: ‘Mr A was divorced from his former wife. As part of the financial settlement, Mr A was ordered to give his wife the property.’

True, except that the court order made this conditional on a payment to your father of £70,000, which your mother refused to pay. The transfer was never filed with the Land Registry.

And if Aslam believed the 2008 divorce meant your mother owned the Wembley house, then why did she include it in your father’s will in 2015? Or, if your mother still owes the £70,000, then why did Aslam fail to declare this in the probate application? I asked, but she failed repeatedly to produce her tax calculations.

Your father’s will leaves the bulk of his estate to a family trust, with Aslam as the trustee. But your father – guided by Aslam – set up two different trusts. Why, I wondered, and had your father signed both?

Aslam told me two separate deeds were sent to your father. She added: ‘He decided to keep all trust documents in his possession. He did not send them to my office for storage as we would have checked to see if the documents had been executed correctly.’ Garbage. You and your family held a certificate confirming the firm was storing both deeds. The certificate was signed by Aslam herself.

Then there is an Expression of Wishes, signed by your father, listing his investments and saying which beneficiaries should receive them. Such letters are not legally binding, but executors often honour them.

However, your father’s wishes contradicted his will.

Aslam claimed ignorance. She told me she met your family after your father died, and she said: ‘They did not mention the existence of an Expression of Wishes document.’

And she protested: ‘The Expression of Wishes is prepared by the client personally, we are not privy to that.’

Garbage again. When I told her I had a copy of the document, laid out in the same way as other Abacus documents and printed in the same typeface, Aslam finally admitted it had been prepared by her company. Then there is the massive delay in paying bequests. Aslam blamed delays on Covid. This really is like saying the dog ate her homework. Your father died in 2017 and we are now in 2024.

Just one final example of this mess is that Aslam admitted that your father’s estate still holds premium bonds. This is ridiculous! Bonds can only win prizes for one year after the holder’s death. So any prizes since 2018 should be disallowed, and the money tied up in bonds should have been earning interest.

At the heart of all this is the fact that anyone can set up a will-writing company, draft wills, name themselves as executor and then create a mess for the family of the deceased. No legal qualifications are needed.

Aslam is not going to step aside. Please, please, hire a proper solicitor to get a court order to kick her out, appoint a replacement and then consider suing her and her company for wasting seven years.

Amazon in a muddle on missing MacBook

D.W. writes: I ordered an Apple MacBook Air from Amazon, costing £1,444. When it arrived, the package contained not a computer but stationery. I returned this, and Amazon said a refund should take two weeks. 

No refund arrived, so I called Amazon and answered questions about the returned package. Weeks later Amazon asked the same questions again. 

I replied, but Amazon’s response has been to send me identical questions.

Tony Hetherington replies: I contacted Amazon, which promptly said it would refund you. But bizarrely, it threatened to snatch back the refund unless you returned the stationery, which you had already done. And next, Amazon decided your computer had been stolen and with impeccable American terminology it asked you to contact the ‘Police Department’ for your ‘zip code’.

I told Amazon that the police would ignore a theft report from you as you never had the computer. Amazon was the real victim and should report the theft. This worked. Amazon told me: ‘We are sorry that customer experience in this case did not meet the high standards we expect.’

Amazon has now repaid the full £1,444 to your bank account.

If you believe you are the victim of financial wrongdoing, write to Tony Hetherington at Financial Mail, 9 Derry Street, London W8 5HY or email tony.hetherington@mailonsunday.co.uk. Because of the high volume of enquiries, personal replies cannot be given. Please send only copies of original documents, which we regret cannot be returned.