Indiana woman, 52, forged her mother's name on $170K home deed on the day she died, jury finds — she now faces 22 years

Medical records revealed Bell’s mother was “minimally responsive” four days before her death. Her signature was also found to not match its appearance on checks she had signed in years prior.

It’s impossible to control what happens after you die. It’s an unfortunate reality that people will sometimes try to take advantage of the confusion surrounding someone’s final days. You may not be able to stop someone from surreptitiously taking more than their fair share of your assets after death, but making sure that you have your intentions clearly laid out — and telling your loved ones the details of your plan — can help prevent future disaster.

How to decide when to revise your will

A 2025 study from Caring.com found only 24% of Americans have a will, and over half don’t have any kind of estate planning documents at all.

Creating a will is one of those things that’s extremely easy to put off; if you’re young and in good health, it can feel like a problem you won’t need to deal with for a long time. But if you don’t have a will yet, it’s worth the effort to create one.

There are several things to consider when putting your will together — your assets, your debt, and who you want to be responsible for handling things after you die — but if your financial situation isn’t too complicated, you can often create your will using online tools that will guide you through the process.

Once you have a will, though, it’s also important to think about what circumstances might make you want to change it in the future.

You might decide to update your will because you have more money, for example. If you create a will when you’re 30 and have relatively little money saved up for retirement, how you want your money distributed will probably be different by the time you’re 60.

If you get married, have kids, or you have other big life changes, it might also be time to revise your plan.

You have two options for how to update your will: You can either write a codicil, or you can just create an entirely new will. A codicil allows you to make minor changes, and it amends your current will. If you have any really complicated changes, it’s usually better to just start from scratch with a new will.

Talking to your loved ones about your estate plan

Fights can bubble up after you die. It doesn’t happen to everyone, but it’s an unfortunate reality when you have both feelings and money involved. Sometimes, people feel very strongly that they should have gotten more than you left them.

But you can often preempt those arguments — and hopefully prevent anyone from making any really drastic mistakes — by talking about your will with your family.

A 2025 study by Fidelity found an overwhelming majority of people — 97% of respondents — believe conversations about estate planning are important, but most parents, around 68% of them, haven’t told their kids what, if anything, they’ll inherit.