Friend forged her mother's will

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I have recently learnt that my friend who I have known since forever forged her late mother's will.

I don't want to go into too much detail about how I learnt this as it will be too outing.

It was nearly 4 years ago when her mother was most vulnerable on her death bed little over a week before she passed. There was another will put in place for around 20 years before this new will and that previous will was destroyed by my friend. Both wills were made at home.

It has nothing to do with me, but my friend took advantage of her dying mother, and now I feel different towards her because of this. I am supposed to be her bridesmaid at her wedding in a few months and I cannot get past how someone could do that for her own advantage. I have known this friend since nursery. We are both late 20's now.

Is it wrong of me to feel different about my friend? I understand this has nothing to do with me but it's the fact she has done it. How cruel towards her other family members.

Who would have benefitted had she not forged the will?

So she’s shown that she’ll steal from people. What to stop her doing something to you in the future?

I would slowly fade from that relationship.

I couldn’t move past this. I read your post and felt immediately nauseous. One of my relatives did this and although I’m far enough removed not to be massively affected by it emotionally (though I definitely was financially), relatives closer to me were and it has been really awful. We don’t know too many details about your case, OP, but for me that would be the end of our friendship.

Just out of sheer self-preservation, you should not stay friends with her because you now know she is capable of betraying her own mother and family, how much easier would it be for her to betray you.

PS. OP, this might still be relatively new and raw to you now and seem out of the blue, but in my experience other situations that struck you as strange with this friend in the past will spring to mind and start to make sense given this new information.

If someone is willing to do that to their own family, think about what they might be willing to do to you.

What proof do you have? Hearsay? Did she tell you directly that she did this? Honestly, it’s incredibly hard to forge wills and have it be honored.

Could it be scorned family members that have said these things about her because they were left nothing? I have a friend who this happened to. Had her name dragged through the earth in our small town because her sister spread lies about her concerning a will. Cruel lies.

So unless she came and flat out told you she did this, or has been prosecuted for this, then I’d say YABU.

What she's done is obviously illegal.

Morally it depends how she changed it - changed it to benefit herself and cut out others, no i wouldn't be friends with her. Changed it to include someone the parent had excluded over something petty - to split her own inheritance and prevent the excluded person finding out they'd been excluded, no I wouldn't judge.

Well I guess if no one questions a will then there’s no need to check the witnesses. If it’s just leaving it to your children then it’s simple I suppose.

£250 for both, not each. So not £500.

If you have more than £125 to leave then you should have a will.

If you have no dependants and don't care what happens after your death?
£250 is still too much, but I presume you're allowed to do your own without a solicitor anyway.

People can be very unfair when writing wills.
If DM was leaving it all to lazy son and excluding the friend and she made it more fair then it wouldn’t bother me.

I'd have a will regardless.

Who gets your jewellery for example? or your books. Your cat? We have a provision in our wills for pets. Our pet-loving solicitor asked us about it (and it was a tick box on their form) and we have a guardian not just for the Dcs but also the 2 dogs (now deceased themselves) and our cat plus instructions for what happens to them and money provided.

Talking about cost - many charities and good causes now offer a free will-writing service so the price need not be a barrier. There is no obligation for the will to benefit that particular cause.
Also, even if you don’t have much materially to leave, a will gives you a chance to specify how you want your body disposed of and what arrangements there should be for dependents.

Our will has a provision for animals we have at the time of our death.

I have broken all contact with a family member who behaved despicably in comparable circumstances.

What a vile woman she is! I hope mum comes back to haunt her!

What did the original will say?

How do you know that she forged it and are you sure she had all the money and other relatives got nothing

If your friend definitely did this she’s a despicable human being and I’d tell her so before telling her the friendship is over.

Your friend was wrong to tell you about it, OP.

I expect you have what you came for, a pile on of posters telling you how crappy a person she is. I don't think you're much better really.

I know someone who was affected by a sibling doing this and she's never got past it.

It takes a special kind of nasty selfishness to do that. I could never stay friends with someone prepared to sink so low.

How can you be certain this happened? If it did happen then it would be very easy to prove the Will was fraudulent as there would need to be witnesses etc.
if someone has told you this, then look at their motivation. Why have they told you this now - 4 years later, just before her wedding? Why haven’t they gone to the Police?

You know your friend well. You should have a good idea of how honest or not she is.

I'm not saying this didn’t happen but I’d look into things a lot more closely before you find your friend guilty.