Anything missing?

My late client’s will was written before October 2007 and provided for a nil-band discretionary trust. At the time he and his wife owned a large house as tenants in common.

If that had been the situation when he died my understanding is that the chargeable legacy to the trust of £325 000 would have been pecuniary in nature and it would have been necessary to enter into some arrangements to avoid having to sell the house to fund it – possibly accepting an ‘IOU’ for £325 000 from the widow in place of the cash representing an interest-free loan which would be deductible from her estate when she died (the trust terms in the will permitted this).

However the large house was sold shortly before my client died and the proceeds were paid into a joint bank account. My understanding is that the...