"It's Super Shady" — Woman Warns About the Dangers of "Free" Will Prep Offered by Churches

Looks like churches are out here tricking elderly people into signing away their homes, after offering to draft up free wills for them and sneaking in some nomenclature that benefits the church.

A woman who posted to the @noneofthisisrealpodcast, TikTok account uploaded a viral PSA warning folks against the practice and how their mother almost became the victim of this scam.

"This is not our usual content but I have a PSA for anyone with elderly parents who are also Christian or attend church. Last month I was with my parents helping them plan out some end-of-life stuff which is super weird and hard and my mom was like oh yeah let's take a look at my will," she says in the clip.

The TikToker continued, "So you know what's in it and so we can see if we wanna change anything. And then she tells me, oh the church prepared this will for us, for free."

She then went on to give a little bit of backstory about the free will setup at her mom's church.

"So the church provides a service apparently where they prepare a will for you, luckily you still take it to a lawyer to get it signed and finalized. So my mom's going over all this with a lawyer and she notices not only had they pressured her at the time of preparing the will to give 10% of whatever was left over her estate to the church..." she says, indicating what you could have already probably guessed.

However, she added that there was another addendum in her will that she couldn't have possibly thought of, either: "But there was something in there that she didn't notice at the time they prepared it. And that was that they would leave the house to the church."

"A house that they've lived in for over 20 years that they worked hard to pay off that they would prefer to leave to their only child, the church snuck that in there, and of course my mom had the lawyer change it immediately, but I think there are a lot of folks out there who will not notice that," she adds.

"It's super shady. Obviously, they knew that my parents had a child I'm referenced in the beginning part of the will and yet they still saw fit to take the house? Like, their only offspring wouldn't want out of my childhood home?"

At the end of her video, the TikToker urges folks to ensure that they're double-checking any wills that have been prepared for their parents by someone else.

"Anyway, if you have elderly parents who are Christian, if you just have parents who are Christian, ask them to look at their will," she says.

"Ask them to double check it ask them if the church prepared it, okay you're welcome bye," the woman says at the end of her clip.

Numerous folks who saw the video couldn't seem to believe that anyone would stand for a church putting them or their loved ones through such an experience, writing that they had hoped her parents would have ultimately decided to call it quits and never return to that church again.

"I really hope this made your parents rethink their membership at this church," one TikToker wrote.

It turns out that predatory congregations who attempt to glean money from the elderly are somewhat common, at least that's judging from this comment made by another user on the platform.

"My mom gave to a church for 40 years.They said they couldn’t help get her to church when she stopped driving, but did send someone to talk about estate planning. I blocked their number."

Another wrote that their church actively monitors the assets and earnings of their members in what is more than likely an attempt to try and secure as much financing from them as possible: "I got one better. our church has a folder on every parishioner with a photo of their home and a list of their assets"

Someone else thought that the TikToker should've prepared a little revenge for the church in the will: "Change the 10% to $10."

There was, sadly, someone else in the comments section of the video who said that the church their great-grandmother attended took the elderly woman's home using a similar tactic.

"The church took my great grandmother’s house in this exact way. Heartbreaking for the family."

What do you think? Do you have a family member who is part of a congregation you believe may've been hoodwinked out of bequeathing their assets to a a descendant because a religious figure / entity managed to dig their claws into their belongings?