About TIC’s founder, Richard J. Szrabe

“Once in a blue moon a man comes along who grasps the relationship between events which have hitherto seemed quite separate, and gives mankind a new dimension of knowledge.”

Language, Thought, and Reality — Selected Writings of Benjamin Lee Whorf (MIT+Wiley, 1959)

TIC is an inspired, personally driven initiative
with a compelling back story

Retired barrister

I was a barrister (Middle Temple) between 1982 and my retirement in 2009 — latterly, at 13 Old Square Chambers, Lincoln’s Inn, London

International insurance

I specialised in a tiny branch of international insurance law on which I wrote books, appeared on radio and TV, organised international conferences etc.

International inheritance

Since 2005 I’ve been involved in various international inheritance cases involving multi-million-dollar art theft, massive criminality by heirs and lawyers etc etc.

Name change

In 2011, having retired, I changed my birth surname Astor (which my father had adopted after WW2, when he moved to England) to Szrabe, a fun derivation of my paternal-paternal surname. ‘Astor’ had to go. Much better!

Concert-standard pianist

One pet project is to go around the world playing all 25 Mozart one-piano piano concertos in unusual, eccentric, exotic locations — and collecting inheritance stories!