A & S Accounting

I should be clear that I never got to the stage where I used Illene Aderton or A and S Accounting for the work I had done. AND SO THANKFUL I DID NOT. Read on and you will understand that what I experienced turned out to be a huge ethical quandary with conflict of interest at the heart of the issue. The following events took place between June 29^th 2015 and Nov. 14, 2015. I was shocked to receive an $ 1800.00 from Illene Aderton owner of A and S Accounting for work I did not contract and work she turned down. I can document every event on this post.
I am the Executor/​Trustee of an Estate. All three beneficiaries are my children. One decided to fight the Estate and that was difficult but I respected her right to file any paper she wished. In the end at the status conference number two (June 29) she decided it was not in her best interest to do so and SUDDENLY the Estate was closing after almost two years! I was quite happy and wished to do the final business properly. I began to call around for bookkeepers to help me with the final evaluation and closing of the Estate and the opening of three trusts. They would have to be calculated also and done according to the final accounting and the will. I am NOT AN ACCOUNTANT but felt with guidance that this could be done and the trusts could finally be funded. You cannot fund a trust until all three valuations are made and the Estate is closing. I was looking for someone to sit with me and make sure all was being done properly. I called around and Illene Aderton called me back. I spoke with her on the phone and she invited me to her office that week to meet about the work. She indicated that she could help me. I asked what I should bring. She said all the relevant documents and the bank accounts.
I went to Illene Aderton’s office, then on Kings Blvd. in Corvallis. She and I spoke for 35 minutes about the work I needed done and the litigation that had taken place. I was candid and honest about the trepidation many of us felt over the one beneficiary and her hurry to receive the funds. I said that I would wish to start with her trust immediately after the Estate funded as this beneficiary wanted to purchase a condo. Illene listen and said she could help me, however she was short on time that day and the plan had changed. I was not to work on it with her then but return and we would get started. I had a box of documents with me and she said I could leave them there. I hesitated as it was the entire legal file and bank statements for the Estate. decided to leave it as she was an accountant with fiduciary responsibilities to her clients. I was a client right? I had follow up appt and she had my info in her office. WONDERFUL I thought, finally we could get on with it and maybe by September I could spend less time as Executor and more time as just me.
You can imagine my shock when she called just a day later to say she could not help me. CONFUSING. I went to pick up my box. She told me in her office that she thought I needed a CPA and she did «not want to deal with the personal dynamics of the beneficiary and I» OKAY! Disappointing but I moved on. I found Doreen Baune at H and R Block in Albany who spent the time with me. We did the work, created annual trust accounting, filed the taxes, and notified the beneficiaries. YAY! DONE, right? well read the rest.
Said beneficiary continued to make threats and we love her so we ignore the negative and go with the facts. IMAGINE my dismay when I got a bill in the mail from an accountant. The name was vaguely familiar but not very. I Google, not much of a website. So I called the number on the bill. When she picked up the phone I recognized the voice. I instantly knew who it was. SO CONFUSED. I asked why she was sending me a bill for accounting when she had declined to work for me. She stated, (and I wrote it down right then) «It was for work I did for Katrina.(the beneficiary who litigated against the final accounting). I WAS DUMBFOUNDED. The first question I asked Illene in her office was «Is all I tell you confidential?» She said yes. How can the Estate information be confidential if she after we met OR BEFORE we met worked for a beneficiary that sued the Estate?
I have spent a week now in my free time researching the ethical standards of bookkeepers. I think that though Illene calls her business A and S Acccounting she may only be a bookkeeper. Does he have standards that she must abide by in the area of conflict of interest? I would like an answer to that.
Everyone who considers employing her should be wondering with me three questions.
1. When did her business relationship with the beneficiary start, before or after we met?
2. Why would she keep my box in that office if she had a conflict of interest?
3. Did she look in or copy any of the confidential files before she said she would not work for me but while, briefly, I was her client?
4. If her relationship with t