Notary rewrites 88-year-old woman’s will to inherit her fortune

A will is supposed to be the last clear voice of the person who wrote it. It tells the world where the money should go, who should receive the house and what the writer wanted to be remembered for. When that voice gets bent by someone else’s hand, the damage goes well beyond the paperwork.

And that’s exactly what happened in Braunfels, a small town in the Lahn-Dill district, where a notary decided to rewrite a deceased woman’s wishes, according to prosecutors, as reported by Hessenschau. An 88-year-old woman turned to her notary for help with her will, but he instead carried out a fraud. On Tuesday, 3 November, the Limburg Regional Court sentenced the former notary to a two-year suspended prison sentence for forgery and fraud.

The court found that the notary had attempted to fraudulently obtain the deceased woman’s inheritance.A will that was never writtenIn February 2023, the woman, then 88, asked the notary to draw up her will. She wanted her assets to go to a monastery in the Rheingau, a church community in Braunfels and her neighbours.