Lack of Assertiveness/willingness to resolve a Late Estate matter dating back to 1993

To whom it may concern:

As I am writing this article I am most disappointed and may I say shocked at the level of service or should I rather say lack of assertiveness or willingness to resolve this matter by Nedbank (Sub-division Nedgroup Trust) – Late Estate Executors.

My father, the late J.A. Holtzhausen passed away on 2 August 1993.

The Executor of my later father’s estate Syfrets (now Nedgroup Trust) was responsible to finalize the estate (as per my late father’s Last Will & Testament) “no less”.

However my Sister and I recently discovered that one of my late father’s Unit Trust Investments with Old Mutual had never been included or paid out by Syfrets (now Nedbank - Sub-division Nedgroup Trust), and as such is still lying unclaimed with Old Mutual to this day (28 December 2017). In fact when we enquired with Old Mutual they had no idea whatsoever that my father had even passed away in 1993 already, nor did they receive any enquiries from this Executor regarding this investment.

There is absolutely no excuse for Syfrets (now Nedgroup Trust) for this blatant oversight as my late Mother who also passed on in 2003 advised them at the time to check my late father’s entire financial portfolio including any unit trust investments with Old Mutual as she was well aware that my late father invested in Old Mutual Unit Trusts on a regular basis, and that as a result there should still be unit trusts under his name and/or ID number with Old Mutual.

As this estate dates back 24 years my Sister and I had to go to great lengths and costs to find out that Syfrets no longer exists and that Nedbank (Sub-division Nedgroup Trust) has taken over all their estate business, and are the ones who should look into and resolve this matter.

At that stage we had already battled for over 2 months just to trace and order certified hard copies of my late father’s entire estate documents from the archives held at the North Gauteng High Court in Pretoria.

We then approached a lady by the name of Ilonka Kruger of Nedbank (Sub-division Nedgroup Trust) on 14 December 2017 with these estate documents attached to an email to resolve as a matter of urgency, to which she rep**** that she is currently busy but would attend to the matter with feedback to us by no later than 18 December 2017.

We did not get any feedback from Ms Kruger of Nedbank (Sub-division Nedgroup Trust) until I phoned her on 20 December 2017 to find out what was going on. The disappointing, or should I say shocking thing about her response was that she questioned me as to where my late father’s estate was registered in 1993, Pretoria or Johannesburg, which was her job to find out in the first place given the fact that I had already emailed her the certified copies of my late father’s entire estate documents received from the North Gauteng High Court in Pretoria a week earlier to enable her to resolve this matter as soon as possible. This proves without doubt that she made no effort whatsoever to go into the matter as she had promised to do with feedback to my Sister and I by latest 18 December 2017.

Minutes after my conversation with Ms Kruger, during which I told her that I have a good mind to take this matter further due to her / Nedbank (Sub-division Nedgroup Trust)’s lack of assertiveness to resolve this matter, I was copied on an email (on the same date 14 December 2017) to a lady by the name of Ashna Rameshur whom is apparently the Branch Manager of the Johannesburg Nedbank (Sub-division Nedgroup Trust) Division, which reads as follows:

“Good afternoon Ashna, Could you please assist the clients? This is an old finalised estate and was administered in Johannesburg since it pre-dates 1997. Errol, you are welcome to contact Ashna in our Johannesburg office ( ********** ), she is the branch manager and will be able to assist you with applying for a Master’s certificate to replace the Executor and transfer the Unit Trust accordingly.

Kind regards Ilonka Kruger”

It is now the 28 December 2017 and still neither I nor my Sister have received any acknowledgement of receipt from this Ms Ashna Rameshur nor even a reply from her to us from Ms Kruger’s email above as to whether or not her or any other member of her office is even attending to this matter any further, even though we have tried on numerous occasions to contact her by telephone and even left messages with her colleagues to please contact us back between 14-22 December 2017 regarding this matter??

I find this level of service from both Ms. Kruger and Ms Rameshur of the Pretoria and Johannesburg offices of Nedbank (Sub-division Nedgroup Trust) Division completely unacceptable, especially in light of the fact that both my Sister and I have gone to great lengths and costs to gather the required information on my late father’s estate from both the Master of the North Gauteng High Court in Pretoria and the Old Mutual Trust Division in order that Nedbank (Sub-division Nedgroup Trust) may resolve this matter as soon as possible, but instead have been met with a total lack of assertiveness and consideration for a poorly managed estate matter which emanated by their very own counterparts Syfrets in 1993 already!!!

In light hereof I would not recommend Nedbank (Sub-division Nedgroup Trust) for any late estate affairs!