The woman’s husband died suddenly in 2017 and had appointed a professional trustee to act as the executor of his estate.

But a staff member at the trustee’s firm made a mistake in calculating the value of some UK shares the woman’s husband had owned.

She multiplied the share price by pounds rather than pence.

As a result, from late 2017, the woman had been under the impression she would receive more than $1 million from the sale.

When the transaction finally happened this year, she received only $24,000. She said the trustee's service was so bad she wanted a refund of all the fees she had paid.

For its part, the trustee apologised but did not offer a refund.

The woman told FSCL she had bought a property at least in part relying on what she expected to get from the shares.

“We considered that, theoretically, [she] could sell her property and recoup what she had paid for it. In that sense, [the trustee’s] negligence had not caused any actual ‘loss’. We also considered that shares are an inherently risky investment and their values can fluctuate, so [the client] probably should not have bought anything in reliance on the shares’ value until they had actually been sold. However, we recognised how upsetting the whole situation must have been for [the client], who was still grieving the loss of her husband. Our view was that the trustee’s service had fallen below an acceptable standard and we invited it to make a settlement offer.”

The woman was offered $10,000 to settle the complaint, which she accepted.