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From: Senior Partner To: Trainee Subject: Mrs Watson — please draft a letter

Hi,

Mrs Eleanor Watson came in to see me last week. Her husband Edward passed away in February. She is in some distress — she lost her sister in the same year — and she is now worried that David and Emma, Edward's adult children from his first marriage, are going to "take everything from her", to quote her exactly. They are not, but I need you to put that in a letter she can actually read and feel reassured by.

Here is what you need to know. Edward and Eleanor owned the family home (a semi-detached house in a suburb of Manchester) as beneficial joint tenants. There was no separation of the beneficial interest. Edward made a will in 2018 (a copy is attached). The will leaves £10,000 each to David and Emma and the residue to Eleanor. There is no other property of significance — the estate residue consists of an investment account worth approximately £105,000 at the date of death.

One thing I should flag: at the end of our meeting Mrs Watson told me that her son from a prior relationship (not a beneficiary under the will; David and Emma are her children with Edward) has been helping her manage her finances since Edward's death. She mentioned, almost in passing, that she signed "some paperwork for him last week" at the kitchen table and she is not quite sure what it was. She seemed slightly vague about it. I told her I would need to look into this separately — I am not asking you to address it in the letter, but I want you to be aware of it as context.

Three things I want you to cover in your letter to Eleanor:

1. Whether the family home forms part of Edward's estate at all. 2. How the £10,000 legacies to David and Emma are funded, and whether Eleanor is at risk of having to find that money out of her own pocket. 3. What, if anything, she needs to do in the next few weeks.

Please write to her, not to me. She is not a lawyer. Plain English. Lead with the bottom line — she will read the first paragraph before her stress takes over, and that paragraph needs to do most of the reassurance work. I have already dealt with all client care, money laundering, and tax matters, so do not cover those.

Thanks.

• The will (extract): "I GIVE the sum of £10,000 to my son DAVID. I GIVE the sum of £10,000 to my daughter EMMA. I GIVE the residue of my estate to my wife ELEANOR absolutely."
• HM Land Registry official copy showing the property held in the joint names of Edward and Eleanor with no Form A restriction on the proprietorship register (i.e. consistent with a beneficial joint tenancy).
• An informal client email forwarded by the partner from Eleanor, last line of which reads: "I am so worried I am going to lose the house and have to pay David and Emma's money out of my own savings. Please, please tell me what is happening."