November Phil

This has to be the quietest month of the year for me.  Since our excitement of last months wedding and holiday I just looked back through my photos to find that I have only taken two so far this month.  I have a few days left so that camera will be coming out!  The reason being that I have been concentrating on the alleged fraud of Daphne’s estate by her IFA.  I know that Claire made this blog private since things got nasty but I suspect that its not as private as she imagines.  Going back to the time it was first made private, I told the story, in my end of month summary, that Jim (the other executor) had made a scene at our solicitors and had to physically escorted off the premises.  The very next morning, I had a text from him apologizing for his actions.  Those of you that know me well will know that I don't believe in coincidence.  Then, earlier this month, Claire received an email for someone saying how much she enjoyed her blog and pointed Claire to her own blog.  How does that work when Claire has made all her blogs private?  Anyway, even though this blog is private, I still have to be careful what I say so forgive me as this is not normal for a “naked blogger”.

When I first got to Daphne’s house to sort out her funeral and finances for probate, it was obvious from the start that most important documents were missing, including her latest will.  There were also no documents relating to her late husbands trust fund.  I had a copy of the will which Daphne had sent me and there was a photocopy in her important documents tin but no original.  Apparently, Daphne had realized this prior to her hospital visit, so 2 days before she went into hospital she signed the copy and had it witnessed to say that this was her final will and testament.  The origin will was found round Jim’s house while I was there in the first week.  This was now covered in coffee stains but not ruined.  I believe that the copy of her will Daphne signed just prior to her hospital visit will prove invaluable in the end game.

Almost all Daphne’s documents relating to her finances were missing along with any correspondence with her Financial Advisor.  This IFA later denied to ever have been Daphne’s FA but was rather her very close friend.  Astonishingly to me, the company that he works for also took his side and backed him completely making my job very much more difficult because nobody would give me any documents.  Also, within a week, her FA had persuaded the other executor Jim to become a trustee for Daphne’s house which had been signed into trust while she was in hospital.  This meant that the other executor was in the pocket of Daphne’s FA that was really her best friend.  I found out around this time that the other trustee of Daphne’s house was the wife of her FA which Daphne had never met but of course, her FA insists that she too was one of Daphne’s best friends.  By this time I am acting completely alone and it appears to me that everybody else in in a massive conspiracy to swindle Daphne out of her final wishes.  I became very despondent and probably depressed although I never received any treatment for it.  It wasn’t really until I spoke to my accountant and friend that I really snapped out of it and started the battle properly.  His advice was that if I do nothing, they will win and get everything.  If I fight, I still might not get anything but at least some of the money, if not all, will be used up in the legal battle and reduce the amount that can be gained fraudulently.  In my mind, I now know that I cannot loose.

I started by finding out all the companies that Daphne’s FA had worked for from the FSA website.  I wrote to each of these sending them a copy of Daphne’s will and a death certificate so they could see that I was acting as her executor and they were obliged to treat me s if I was Daphne.  Now Daphne is alive again to fight her own battle.  All these companies were quite helpful, especially to start with and once I had established a relationship I could phone them to get more and more information about her investments, most of which had already been cashed in.  It also meant that I could write directly to the investment companies.  I gradually received copies of old documents which is slowly uncovering a web of deceit.  I also had a few documents that had not been stolen from Daphne’s house and I wrote to each of those companies as well so as to create a working relationship with them.  I think that I now have a pretty good picture of the extent of Daphne’s stocks and shares at the time of her death.  My next step was to visit the probate offices in London to get a copy of her late husbands stocks and shares at the time of his death 10 years ago.  This would have given me the starting point and the end point which should enable me to gradually join them together and eventually uncover every transaction made by her FA.  I visited the probate office in London on Wednesday but it appears that probate was not done for Daphne’s late husband.  I guess that he didn’t leave very much as everything was put into this damned trust.  However, I am now able to talk to all the financial people regarding Daphne’s late husbands trust fund because I have uncovered that I am a trustee of that as well.  I have also found out that Daphne’s FA’s wife is also a trustee of this trust as well.  No wonder he didn’t want anyone to know that he was Daphne’s FA.

I now have lots of documents siting Daphne’s FA as actually being her FA for at least the last 10 years.  Strangely, since uncovering this, both her FA and the company that he works for have now started to send me information and accept that they were Daphne’s IFA’s.  However, the information that they are sending me is minimal and it certainly wont stop me from complaining to the FSA at the end of the day.  Amazingly, I have found one live fund that Daphne had me down as second life covered and once she died, this company created a new customer number for me.  This effectively makes Daphne’s FA and the company that he works for my IFA’s.

I have uncovered some very interesting things so far that could have very big consequences, but at the moment I best not talk about them.  Regarding the original trust, the pendulum has started to swing in my direction.  However, regarding the house trust, there is little that I can do at the moment without a full out court confrontation which would be very expensive.  I think that for the moment, its best to uncover the easier trust first so that any anomalies found there will be in our favor for the second expensive confrontation.    Watch this space.

More immediately, Daphne’s house is now up for sale.  I have visited my solicitor and it is possible to get an injunction to temporarily stop the sale but this process is incredibly expensive.  I don't believe that the gain is worth the expense at this moment.  I have also been told that even if it is sold and the money distributed then I can still recover this money retrospectively from the beneficiaries once the truth is finally uncovered.  Of course, this does not stop me from sticking a few spanners in the works if the house does sell.

Our passports run out early next year so we sent them off for renewal and they finally came back this month.  Claire is now officially Mrs Krause.  It also means that we can go on holiday somewhere outside of the EU again.  When I get a moment I will start searching again.  I really fancy going back to Goa again as it has now been several years since we last went there.  The flight prices seem to have gone up enormously since I last looked, however their exchange rate looks quite favorable.  I have found a cheap week there that includes flights and B&B but they cannot arrange the flights outside of the accommodation.  Ideally we would go for 2 month leaving early next year.  I have also been looking for a cruise again and found a really great sounding one that starts from Barcelona stopping at Madera, Tenerife, Lanzarote, Malaga and back to Barcelona again.  I did enquire about this but they wont let you off the ship until you get back to Barcelona.  Well, you can get off for the day but not for a week and then catch the next cruise ship that comes by.  I found a nice 3 day trip to Iceland stopping in the Reykjavik Hotel.  What a trip that would be especially if you were lucky enough to see the Northern lights.  At the least you could visit all the active geezers and volcanoes, every boys dream.  Unfortunately though, not Claire’s, she would rather stay at home.  Whatever we finally chose, I don’t think that we will have time to get away for more than a few days before Christmas as we have too many commitments already.

We have been going back to the Nags Head again recently and decided to walk so as to find the route.  I thought it was best to follow the canal but Claire thought it quicker to cross the bridge and go through Linford Park.  Claire went one way while I went the other.  When I got there, I took my phone out so I could phone Claire and tell her that I was already there but then I spotted her waiting outside the pub.  She must have ran.  Anyway, the next time we walked there we went Claire’s way but were cut off by flood water so had to go back my way.  Talking of flood water, when I went to get the post the other day I noticed that the other side of Newport was flooded in the fields and that they must have resited the cattle that used to graze there.

Even the pub was closed down as the whole area was flooded out.  I stopped to get pictures all along my journey so this has solved my problem of have so few photos this month.  Trouble is, they look a bit random spread throughout sections that are about something else.  I spotted some cows with very little space to graze or even stand on the way back.  While I visited the probate offices on Wednesday, I decided to stop off at Camden again for some noodles in the market.  This brought back old memories, not all good.  On the little market opposite the main one they have put a load of old scooter rear ends to use as seats along side the canal.  I love it when old useless things are recycled like this.  All it requires is thought.