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Counseling and Facilitation of Testament Deed Preparation for Older

Adults and Low-Income Urban Families to Prevent Inheritance

Disputes

Henny Saida Flora

, Suryani Intan Pratiwi Puwa

, Antasia Sarjono

, Ahmad Yani

Universitas Katolik Santo Thomas, Medan, Sumatera Utara

2,3

Universitas Negeri Gorontalo, Kota Gorontalo

STAI Kharisma Cicurug, Sukabumi, Jawa Barat

e-mail:

hennysaida@yahoo.com,

intan.puwa_dosen@ung.ac.id,

desy.sarjono_dosen@ung.ac.id,

ahmadyanisoedarmo@gmail.com

Abstract

This community service article examines a legal counseling and facilitation program on

testament deed preparation for older adults and low-income urban families in an urban

Indonesian setting. The program was designed in response to the continuing vulnerability of

families who possess limited legal literacy, fragmented family communication, and inadequate

access to formal legal assistance in inheritance matters. Indonesian civil law recognizes

inheritance by testament, while the Civil Code also preserves mandatory portions for certain

heirs and places formal requirements on valid wills, making legal understanding essential for

prevention of future disputes. Using a qualitative research design embedded in community

service, data were collected through observation, semi-structured interviews, focus group

discussions, field notes, and document review during counseling, screening, and facilitation

stages. Program participants consisted of 40 individuals, including older adults, family

members, community cadres, and neighborhood leaders. The findings indicate that counseling

improved participants’ legal understanding, reduced hesitation to discuss end-of-life property

planning, and clarified the distinction between testamentary freedom and legal limitations

under Indonesian inheritance law. Facilitation further revealed that the main barriers were

fear of family conflict, incomplete civil documentation, low confidence in approaching a

notary, and misconceptions that wills are relevant only for wealthy households. The article

argues that community-based legal outreach can function as an early dispute-prevention

strategy by combining legal education, family mediation, and referral pathways to formal

legal services.

Keywords: Community Service, Low-income Families, Inheritance Dispute, Legal

Counseling

Introduction

Urban communities in Indonesia are increasingly confronted with legal and

social complexity in matters of intergenerational property transfer. Population aging,

migration, blended family structures, informal asset ownership, and uneven legal

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literacy have made inheritance arrangements more fragile than in earlier social

settings. In many low-income urban neighborhoods, household property may consist

not only of land or a house, but also movable property, savings, pension-related

claims, or informal occupancy interests that carry high emotional and economic

significance. When these matters are left without communication or documentation,

the likelihood of misunderstanding among heirs becomes substantial. Under the

Indonesian Civil Code, inheritance opens upon death and heirs acquire rights over

the estate by law, while disputes over who qualifies as heir and who controls

property may require judicial safeguarding of the estate (Kusumaningrum and

Nasrudin 2026).

Testamentary planning occupies an important position within this legal

landscape because a will allows a person to express wishes regarding posthumous

distribution of assets, specific grants, or the appointment of heirs within the

boundaries permitted by law. Indonesian legal sources define a testament as a deed

containing a person’s statement about what is intended to occur after death and that

may be revoked by the testator. At the same time, the law does not grant unlimited

freedom. The doctrine of legitieme portie protects reserved rights of certain heirs in

direct lines, meaning that a will cannot simply eliminate mandatory portions

guaranteed by law. Consequently, legal counseling on testament deeds is not merely

a technical matter of drafting a document. It also requires explanation of legal

boundaries, family communication, documentation requirements, and the relation

between private wishes and statutory protection.

The urgency of this issue becomes sharper for older adults. Older persons often

possess the strongest memory of family property history, yet they may also

experience declining health, anxiety about mortality, emotional reluctance to discuss

death, or dependence on particular children or relatives. These conditions can create

vulnerability to pressure, misunderstanding, or silence in estate planning. Several

practical legal discussions in Indonesia note that a valid will depends upon mental

capacity, voluntary intention, and compliance with formalities, including writing

and witness or notarial involvement depending on the testament form recognized by

law. For elderly individuals, therefore, timely counseling is crucial not only for legal

clarity but also for the protection of autonomy and dignity in expressing final wishes

(Rahmah et al. 2026a).

Low-income urban families face a different but related set of constraints. They

often assume that testament deeds are instruments designed only for affluent people

with complex property portfolios. This assumption is problematic because

economically modest households may still face serious inheritance conflict over a

small house, shared land rights, compensation claims, bank savings, or family

businesses. In conditions of scarcity, even assets of limited market value can have

major significance for residence security and livelihood continuity. Yet households in

such settings frequently have limited access to lawyers, notaries, or formal state

information. Public access channels through legal-administrative platforms exist,

including online services associated with the Ministry of Law and Human Rights, but

digital access alone does not automatically resolve comprehension barriers for

vulnerable groups.

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Within the Indonesian context, inheritance law is also plural in nature. Scholars

commonly describe the coexistence of civil, Islamic, and customary inheritance

regimes, each with distinct principles and social legitimacy. For practical community

service in urban mixed settings, this plurality creates the need for careful legal

positioning. The present article focuses specifically on testament deed literacy within

the civil law framework, because the activity addressed a need for understanding

formal legal documentation and referral pathways to notarial or legal-aid support.

The focus is therefore not to deny the coexistence of other systems, but to respond to

a concrete community demand for civil-law-based preventive education concerning

wills and inheritance disputes (Alioni and Badiani 2026).

From a public-service perspective, dispute prevention is a highly relevant

objective. Litigation or formal dispute resolution over inheritance is expensive, time-

consuming, emotionally exhausting, and often destructive to long-term family

relationships. Even before a case enters court, uncertainty over asset control can

delay use of property, trigger mistrust among siblings, and burden widows, elderly

parents, or dependent family members. The Civil Code itself anticipates such

contestation by allowing the judge to place estate property in safekeeping when

heirship is disputed. This means that preventive action before death or before conflict

escalation is socially valuable. Counseling on testament deeds can operate as a form

of anticipatory justice, helping families understand rights, limits, and procedures

before disagreement hardens into conflict.

Community service institutions, especially universities, are well positioned to

carry out this preventive function. Indonesian higher education has long treated

pengabdian kepada masyarakat as a vehicle for transferring knowledge,

strengthening community capacity, and addressing social problems through

participatory intervention. In legal community service, the role of the university is

not simply to lecture communities but to translate complex legal norms into

accessible understanding, identify local barriers, and facilitate practical next steps.

This aligns with the broader principle that formal legal rules become effective only

when citizens can understand, access, and apply them in daily life. Inheritance law is

a clear area where doctrinal knowledge alone is insufficient unless communities can

connect legal concepts to family communication, documentation habits, and

institutional pathways (Rahmah et al. 2026).

The title of this article reflects that dual orientation: counseling and facilitation.

Counseling addresses legal literacy, misconceptions, and awareness. Facilitation

addresses the operational dimension: screening participant needs, mapping family

situations, identifying incomplete documents, and referring appropriate cases for

follow-up. This distinction is important because community members may leave a

seminar with improved knowledge but remain unable to act due to fear, procedural

confusion, or document deficits. By combining the two, the program aimed to move

participants from passive understanding toward initial legal readiness.

The empirical basis of this article comes from a qualitative analysis of a

community service program conducted in an urban neighborhood setting involving

older adults, low-income families, community cadres, and local leaders. The activity

explored how participants understood inheritance risk before the intervention, how

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they responded to legal counseling about testament deeds, what barriers emerged

during facilitation, and what forms of perceived benefit appeared after the program.

The analysis does not claim statistical generalization. Instead, it seeks to produce a

thick description of participant experiences and a conceptually grounded

interpretation of how community-based legal outreach can contribute to inheritance-

dispute prevention (Deforche et al. 2025).

Method

The program used a descriptive-interpretive qualitative design. Descriptively, it

documented the stages of outreach, participant profile, discussion dynamics, and

facilitation outputs. Interpretively, it analyzed how participants made sense of

testament deeds before and after the intervention and how legal information

interacted with their social realities. The outreach activity was organized as

community legal education followed by limited legal facilitation. The counseling

component introduced participants to the civil-law meaning of testament deeds,

basic validity principles, the distinction between wills and statutory inheritance, and

the role of legal limits such as legitieme portie. The facilitation component helped

participants screen their cases, identify relevant assets and heirs, reflect on family

communication needs, and recognize when referral to a notary or legal-aid

institution was necessary.

The field setting was an urban neighborhood characterized by mixed-income

housing but with a concentration of economically vulnerable households and older

residents. The target groups were: (1) older adults aged 60 years and above; (2) adult

family members responsible for caregiving or household decision-making; (3)

community cadres; and (4) neighborhood leaders who often serve as trusted local

intermediaries. The total participant count in the activity was 40 persons. The

program intentionally involved family members and community actors because

testament preparation is shaped not only by the legal wishes of the elderly individual

but also by family support, communication climate, and local referral networks.

Participant recruitment used purposive sampling. Inclusion criteria were

adjusted to the goals of the service activity: older adults who expressed concern

about inheritance or property transfer; households identified by local community

networks as economically vulnerable; family members accompanying elderly

participants; and local actors able to assist follow-up after the activity. This non-

probability strategy was appropriate because the study did not seek

representativeness in a statistical sense, but information-rich cases. Participants were

approached through neighborhood leadership and community communication

channels, then invited to attend the counseling and consultation session.\

The study relied on multiple qualitative data sources to increase interpretive

depth. First, field observations were carried out during counseling delivery,

question-and-answer sessions, and individual consultations. These observations

captured participant attentiveness, recurring confusion, emotional reactions, and

interaction patterns. Second, semi-structured interviews were undertaken with

selected older adults, family members, and community facilitators after the session.

The interviews explored prior understanding of wills, perceived benefits of the

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activity, concerns about family response, and willingness to pursue formal follow-

up. Third, a focused group discussion with community cadres and local leaders was

conducted to understand contextual barriers such as legal distrust, documentation

issues, and social taboos regarding discussion of death.

Fourth, the program team collected consultation notes from facilitation desks.

These notes summarized participant concerns, asset types discussed, document gaps,

and referrals recommended. Fifth, simple pre- and post-session comprehension

checks were administered as supportive program data, not as the primary method.

These checks were used descriptively to identify shifts in basic understanding. Sixth,

document review was conducted on relevant legal materials concerning the

Indonesian Civil Code and testamentary inheritance to ensure doctrinal accuracy in

the educational materials.

Data collection followed four stages. In the first stage, the team carried out a

needs assessment through informal discussion with neighborhood representatives.

This stage identified common anxieties: fear that talking about inheritance would be

viewed as inviting death, uncertainty about whether modest assets justify a will, and

concern over family jealousy. In the second stage, educational materials were

prepared. The material focused on accessible explanation of inheritance opening

upon death, the meaning of a testament, legal forms and validity issues, the existence

of reserved portions for certain heirs, and the role of witnesses or notarial processes

depending on testament form.

In the third stage, the counseling event was implemented. It consisted of a

plenary presentation, interactive question-and-answer session, and distribution of a

simplified testament-intent worksheet. The worksheet did not function as a legal

deed. It served as a reflective aid allowing participants to list family members,

identify assets, and note questions for later professional consultation. In the fourth

stage, a facilitation clinic was conducted. Participants who wished to continue were

invited to short consultations where the team clarified whether their issues required

document completion, family communication first, notarial referral, or further legal

aid.

Because this was qualitative research, the main instrument was the researcher-

service team. To maintain consistency, several supporting instruments were used: an

observation guide, semi-structured interview guide, consultation-note form, and

participant worksheet. The observation guide included indicators such as participant

participation, confusion points, and response to legal terminology. The interview

guide included questions on prior knowledge, perceived relevance, family concerns,

and intended next steps. The consultation-note form recorded participant category,

main issue, assets mentioned, legal misunderstanding identified, document

condition, and recommendation.

The comprehension checks contained short indicators rather than detailed

testing. They asked whether participants could explain the legal function of a

testament, basic validity requirements, the possibility of dispute prevention, steps

toward formal follow-up, and the need for family discussion. These supportive data

were useful for triangulation with qualitative findings and for constructing a

descriptive picture of learning change during the community service program. Data

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analysis used interactive thematic analysis. The process began with data reduction, in

which field notes, interview transcripts or summaries, FGD notes, and consultation

records were read repeatedly to identify meaningful units. These units were then

coded into preliminary categories such as legal misunderstanding, emotional

resistance, family communication difficulty, document gaps, motivation for action,

and institutional trust. The next step involved grouping codes into broader themes.

Through this process, four major analytical themes were identified: (1) low baseline

legal literacy; (2) counseling as a trigger for legal awareness and dialogue; (3)

facilitation as a bridge from knowledge to action; and (4) structural barriers to

testament formalization.

Supportive numerical program data were not treated inferentially. Instead, they

were used descriptively to complement thematic findings. For instance, when post-

session indicators showed higher counts of correct responses on validity

requirements and referral steps, these shifts were interpreted alongside interview

statements expressing greater clarity and confidence. This strategy allowed

integration of descriptive tables and charts without changing the qualitative

orientation of the study. Trustworthiness was strengthened through triangulation of

sources and techniques. Observational data were compared with interview responses

and facilitation notes. Statements made by older adults were cross-checked against

the views of family members and community cadres. Legal content used in

counseling was checked against available Civil Code sources and Indonesian legal

analyses on wills and inheritance. In addition, peer debriefing was used within the

service team to discuss ambiguous interpretations and reduce individual bias in

coding participant responses.

Credibility was also enhanced through prolonged engagement during the event

cycle, including pre-activity coordination, counseling interaction, and post-session

consultation. Transferability was addressed by providing a rich contextual

description of participants, setting, and service design, so that readers may judge

relevance for other urban communities. Dependability was strengthened by

documenting instruments, session flow, and coding logic. Confirmability was

pursued by maintaining field notes that separated direct participant statements from

researcher interpretation.

Ethical attention was essential because the topic touches on death, family tension,

property, and older-adult vulnerability. Participation was voluntary and based on

informed explanation of the activity’s purpose. Participants were informed that the

worksheet and facilitation desk did not produce a legally valid deed and did not

replace professional notarial services. Personal details disclosed in consultations

were treated confidentially and anonymized in reporting. The counseling format also

emphasized that testament preparation must reflect voluntary wishes and legal

capacity, not family coercion, consistent with legal discussions on valid testamentary

intent and mental soundness.

Results And Discussion

The findings show that the community service program generated meaningful

changes in legal understanding, emotional readiness, and practical orientation

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toward testament planning among older adults and low-income urban families. At

the beginning of the activity, most participants associated inheritance only with

post-death family meetings or informal verbal distribution by respected relatives.

Very few could explain the legal nature of a testament or the formal limits governing

its validity. This baseline confirmed that inheritance dispute prevention in

vulnerable urban communities requires more than general legal awareness; it

requires targeted explanation of what a will is, how it differs from ordinary family

promises, and why legal form matters under the Civil Code.

The program involved 40 participants drawn from several community categories,

as shown in Table 1. The composition demonstrates that the activity succeeded in

reaching not only elderly individuals as primary beneficiaries but also family

members and local intermediaries whose support is critical for follow-up.

Table 1. Participant Composition

Category

Count

Elderly (60+)

Adult family member

Community cadre

Neighborhood leader

Table 1 indicates that older adults formed the largest group, followed closely by

adult family members. This pattern is important because testament planning is

rarely a purely private decision in practice; even when the legal authority lies with

the testator, implementation readiness often depends on whether children or

caregivers understand the process. The participation of cadres and neighborhood

leaders strengthened the local legitimacy of the program and created potential

support channels for future referrals.

The observational notes show that older participants were generally attentive but

initially cautious when discussion moved to death-related planning. Several

participants laughed nervously or redirected questions toward “later” family

discussion, indicating discomfort with direct legal planning. Family members, by

contrast, more often asked procedural questions, such as whether a modest house

could be included in a will and whether notarial services were mandatory in all

cases. This contrast suggests that emotional reluctance and procedural uncertainty

coexist and must both be addressed in legal outreach.

Pre-session interaction revealed four dominant misconceptions. First, many

participants believed a will is needed only by wealthy individuals. Second, some

assumed that verbal family instructions are automatically binding after death. Third,

several believed that a person may distribute all property entirely at personal

discretion without legal limits. Fourth, many thought that discussing inheritance

while alive is socially improper and likely to produce conflict. These misconceptions

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are highly relevant because they correspond directly to doctrinal realities otherwise

stated in legal sources: a testament is a legally defined deed, it is revocable, and

testamentary freedom remains subject to the protection of lawful heirs through

reserved portions.

In interviews, one elderly participant explained that he had long intended to

“leave things equally” but never wrote anything because he assumed only

landowners with many assets needed a will. A family member accompanying

another participant stated that siblings often rely on “what everyone already

knows,” yet no one can later prove such understanding when the parent dies. These

accounts reveal that legal vulnerability stems not only from lack of legal text

knowledge but also from habitual dependence on family assumption. Counseling

therefore had to challenge everyday informalism without dismissing the importance

of family trust.

The descriptive knowledge indicators show a clear increase in participant

understanding after the counseling session.

Table 2. Participant Understanding after Counseling

Indicator

Pre

Post

Improvement

Understanding legal function of testament

Knowing basic validity requirements

Awareness of inheritance dispute risk

Knowing steps to consult notary/authority

Confidence to discuss testament in family

Table 2 shows that all five indicators improved after the session. The largest gains

appeared in knowledge of validity requirements, knowledge of referral steps, and

confidence to discuss testament issues within the family. These results are consistent

with the content emphasis of the counseling, which combined doctrinal explanation

with practical examples of what participants should prepare before approaching

formal legal institutions.

The improvement in “confidence to discuss testament in family” deserves special

attention. Although this indicator remains lower than purely cognitive indicators, its

increase from 14 to 29 suggests that participants did not merely memorize

information; many also became more willing to treat testament planning as a

discussable family issue. Interview data support this interpretation. Participants

reported that learning the legal purpose of a will helped them view inheritance

discussion as a preventive and responsible act rather than an invitation to conflict.

The counseling session also succeeded in clarifying the relationship between

testamentary freedom and legal protection of heirs. During the question-and-answer

segment, participants frequently asked whether a parent can give everything to one

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child. The explanation that Indonesian civil law recognizes wills but preserves

reserved shares for certain heirs helped shift conversation away from assumptions of

absolute personal discretion. In several cases, this explanation diffused emotionally

charged concerns and redirected discussion toward lawful fairness.

Beyond classroom-style counseling, the facilitation clinic generated practical

outputs summarized in Table 3.

Table 3. Facilitation Outputs

Outcome

Cases

Initial legal screening completed

Family consultation facilitated

Draft testament intent form completed

Referred to notary/legal aid follow-up

Supporting civil documents identified as incomplete

Table 3 demonstrates that all participants received initial screening, while a

substantial portion proceeded to family-oriented consultation and practical follow-

up. Nineteen participants completed a simplified testament-intent form, which

functioned as a preparatory tool rather than a legally valid deed. Fifteen participants

were assessed as requiring follow-up with a notary or legal assistance provider

because their cases involved document formalization, more complex family

structures, or uncertainty regarding legal shares and property status.

The high number of incomplete supporting documents, found in 17 cases, is one

of the most significant operational findings. Participants often lacked orderly records

of marriage, ownership, death certificates of prior family members, or consistent

identity documentation. This confirms that barriers to testament planning are

administrative as much as doctrinal. In other words, increasing legal understanding

does not automatically produce legal readiness. Community service programs on

inheritance prevention should therefore include a documentation audit or checklist

as a standard component. The first major theme concerns low baseline legal literacy.

Many participants had heard the term “wasiat,” but their understanding was broad,

informal, or religiously generalized rather than tied to civil-law form. Very few

could explain that a testament is a deed with legal consequences after death and that

its validity depends on formal requirements recognized by law. The distinction

between oral wishes, moral family expectations, and a formally valid will was

largely absent at the outset.

This low literacy was especially visible when participants discussed fairness.

Most used fairness in moral terms, such as equal division among children, helping

the poorest child, or respecting caregiving effort. While these are socially meaningful

criteria, they were rarely connected to the legal position of lawful heirs and

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mandatory shares. Counseling helped participants understand that legal fairness

under the Civil Code includes structural constraints that must be respected when

drafting testamentary instructions. The second theme is that counseling functioned

as a trigger for legal awareness rather than mere information transfer.

Observationally, participants became more engaged when the explanation moved

from legal definitions to concrete dispute scenarios: for example, one child

controlling a house certificate, siblings disagreeing over parental verbal statements,

or a second marriage creating competing expectations. These examples helped

participants realize that testament planning is not only about property distribution

but also about reducing ambiguity before a conflict emerges.

This theme aligns with the increase in awareness of inheritance dispute risk in

Table 2. Participants began to recognize that silence is not neutral; silence can itself

create room for future dispute. Some older adults stated in interviews that they

previously avoided the topic to “keep peace,” yet after counseling they saw that

careful explanation while alive may better preserve peace than leaving relatives to

guess later. The result suggests that legal outreach is most effective when it reframes

planning as family protection rather than personal control. The third theme is that

facilitation served as a bridge from understanding to action. After the plenary

session, many participants still did not know what to do first. The clinic structure

helped break down action into manageable steps: identify family members, list

assets, review available documents, decide whether internal family dialogue is

needed, and determine whether notarial referral is appropriate. This staged process

reduced intimidation and made the legal path seem more attainable.

For low-income families, the bridge function was particularly important. Some

participants openly stated that they had never imagined visiting a notary because

they assumed the service was beyond their reach. When facilitators explained which

cases genuinely require formal follow-up and how preliminary preparation can be

done first, participants reported feeling less overwhelmed. This indicates that

community service should not stop at lecture-based legal literacy; practical pathway

design is essential. The fourth theme concerns emotional and cultural resistance.

Despite improved understanding, a number of participants remained hesitant to

begin family discussion. The most common reason was fear that children would

interpret testament planning as favoritism or as a sign of impending death. Some

elderly participants also worried that talking openly about assets would expose

existing undocumented arrangements or revive dormant sibling tensions.

This resistance shows that testament planning is a socio-emotional process as

much as a legal one. The legal validity of a will may depend on form, but the

willingness to create one depends on trust, timing, and communication. As a result,

future programs should include communication strategies, such as guided family

dialogue sessions or scenario-based counseling, so that communities can translate

legal knowledge into socially acceptable conversation.

The fifth theme is administrative incompleteness. During facilitation, participants

discovered that will preparation cannot be separated from the quality of their civil

documentation. Missing marriage certificates, unclear ownership evidence,

inconsistent names across documents, and unresolved prior inheritance transfers all

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complicated the idea of immediate testament formalization. This finding is

consistent with doctrinal emphasis on legal form and evidentiary order in civil law

processes. In practice, this means that a valid testament may be conceptually

possible but procedurally difficult if family records are weak. Therefore, the

preventive value of community service lies partly in early diagnosis. Even where a

testament is not immediately completed, the identification of document deficits can

itself prevent future disputes by encouraging record correction before a death

occurs.

The chart on participant composition shows that the intervention achieved a

multi-actor outreach structure rather than addressing elderly persons in isolation.

This is analytically important because inheritance dispute prevention requires family

and community support around the testator, not only individual awareness. The

predominance of elderly and adult family participants also confirms that the

program reached its intended beneficiaries. The knowledge-change chart visually

reinforces the qualitative finding that participants experienced both cognitive and

relational movement. Gains in validity knowledge and referral knowledge suggest

stronger procedural readiness, while gains in confidence to discuss testament issues

indicate emerging family-level openness. Although the chart does not demonstrate

long-term behavioral follow-through, it provides a useful descriptive representation

of the program’s immediate educational effect.

Taken together, the results indicate that the counseling-and-facilitation model

produced three layered outcomes. First, it improved legal understanding of

testament deeds as regulated instruments rather than informal family statements.

Second, it encouraged participants to reinterpret inheritance discussion as

preventive care for the family rather than a taboo act. Third, it exposed the practical

barriers—especially documentation gaps and procedural uncertainty—that must be

addressed if participants are to move from awareness to formal testament

preparation. These findings are significant for community service practice. They

show that inheritance-dispute prevention cannot rely solely on post-conflict legal

assistance. There is a meaningful preventive space in which universities and local

communities can collaborate to cultivate legal literacy, foster dialogue, and prepare

families for lawful formalization before disputes arise. The next section discusses the

broader implications of these findings for legal empowerment, aging, urban

vulnerability, and community-service design.

Discussion

The findings confirm that testament deed counseling for older adults and low-

income urban families should be understood as a preventive access-to-justice

intervention rather than merely a legal information session. Indonesian civil law

gives testamentary instruments a clear juridical place, yet their practical use depends

on whether citizens can understand legal concepts, recognize lawful limits, and

navigate institutional procedures. In vulnerable urban communities, the distance

between formal law and everyday life remains substantial. The present program

narrowed that distance by translating inheritance doctrine into family-relevant

situations and by creating an initial bridge to practical follow-up (Yusuf et al. 2026).

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A first point of discussion concerns legal consciousness. Before the intervention,

most participants had only partial or informal awareness of wills. This finding

reflects the broader socio-legal pattern in which law is often encountered through

rumor, habit, or family precedent rather than through direct comprehension of

formal rules. When participants assumed that verbal wishes are enough or that a

will is only for the wealthy, they were not simply “uninformed”; they were relying

on alternative normative systems of family trust and social custom. Such systems are

meaningful, but they may prove inadequate when conflict emerges, especially in

urban contexts marked by migration, mixed families, or scarce housing resources.

The community service intervention therefore functioned as a process of legal

translation, showing participants where informal norms remain useful and where

formal legal protection becomes necessary (Boonsang et al. 2026).

This raises a second point: effective legal outreach must integrate doctrine and

social reality. The legal definition of a testament and the doctrine of reserved shares

are essential, but participants respond most strongly when these are connected to

concrete family scenarios. The discussion sessions showed that abstract explanation

alone would have been insufficient. Participants became most engaged when the

session described sibling disagreement, unclear control of certificates, or second-

marriage complexities. This suggests that university-led legal community service

should adopt scenario-based pedagogy, especially in topics such as inheritance

where legal problems are deeply intertwined with emotion and kinship.

A third issue concerns older adults as rights-bearing subjects. In many families,

elderly persons are treated as passive objects of care rather than autonomous legal

actors. Yet testament law presumes intention, capacity, and revocability, all of which

center the person making the will. The present findings show that counseling can

strengthen this autonomy by helping elderly participants understand that they

retain a lawful voice in planning future asset distribution, provided their actions

meet legal requirements. At the same time, the findings also remind us that

autonomy is relational. Older adults often want their wishes to be understood by

children and caregivers, not merely recorded in a legal instrument. Accordingly, a

rights-based community service model for the elderly should support both

individual legal agency and mediated family communication (Hadson, Tungaturthy,

and David 2026).

A fourth discussion point concerns low-income families and the myth that legal

planning belongs only to affluent groups. This myth has serious consequences. It

delays action, normalizes undocumented arrangements, and leaves economically

vulnerable households exposed to conflict over modest but vital assets such as a

small house or family savings. The results demonstrate that once participants

understood that a testament can be relevant for ordinary households, they became

more open to planning. This finding is important for community empowerment

policy because it suggests that legal education should deliberately challenge class-

based assumptions about who deserves formal legal protection. Preventive

inheritance planning is not a luxury service; it is part of social legal inclusion

(Simanjuntak and Yustikarini 2024).

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The role of facilitation deserves deeper reflection. Many outreach programs stop

after delivering information, implicitly assuming that knowledge will naturally

produce action. The present study shows otherwise. Even participants who

understood the session content often remained unsure about the next step.

Facilitation was therefore not an optional supplement; it was the operational core

that transformed legal literacy into initial readiness. Through screening, document

review, and referral mapping, the facilitation process reduced procedural ambiguity

and helped participants recognize that legal action can be staged. This finding aligns

with access-to-justice thinking: barriers to justice are not only substantive but also

procedural, psychological, and institutional (Safarina et al. 2026).

The discovery of widespread documentation gaps is particularly revealing. It

shows that inheritance-dispute prevention must be conceived as an ecosystem of

legal preparedness. A testament deed does not stand alone. Its effectiveness is linked

to civil documentation, property proof, family status records, and institutional

traceability. For low-income urban households, missing or inconsistent records can

make later dispute resolution extremely difficult. From this perspective, the

counseling program served as an early-warning mechanism. It enabled participants

to diagnose weaknesses that may not be visible in ordinary family life but become

decisive after death. Universities and community-service actors should therefore

consider documentation audits, administrative assistance, or partnerships with civil

registration support services as part of future inheritance-prevention initiatives

(Bhatti et al. 2025).

Another significant issue is the social management of taboo. The results indicate

that participants’ hesitation to discuss inheritance is not simply ignorance but a

culturally and emotionally loaded response. In many families, speaking about death

is associated with disrespect, fear, or suspicion. This means that legal outreach on

testament deeds must be sensitive in tone and framing. The present program was

more successful when the issue was framed as protection of family harmony and

prevention of future misunderstanding. Such framing allows communities to

reinterpret planning as an act of care rather than greed. For practical program

design, this implies that facilitators should use language emphasizing family

protection, legal clarity, and dignity for older adults, rather than technical legalism

alone (Breder, Jacob, and David 2025).

The findings also contribute to understanding how community service can

generate academically meaningful knowledge. Too often, legal community service is

reported as a sequence of activities without analytical engagement. This article

demonstrates that outreach data can illuminate broader themes such as legal

consciousness, dispute prevention, aging, and procedural access. In that sense,

community service is not merely implementation; it is also a site of socio-legal

inquiry. For SINTA-oriented scholarship, this matters because it shows how a

service program can produce publishable knowledge when data are systematically

gathered, interpreted, and connected to legal doctrine and social theory (Faustino et

al. 2020).

A further discussion concerns the relationship between preventive and curative

legal responses. Formal legal institutions often become involved only after conflict

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has escalated. Yet the Civil Code’s attention to heir status, testament form, and

dispute over estate control implies that uncertainty before or immediately after

death already has serious legal consequences. The present findings support the

argument that preventive legal outreach is a valuable complement to curative

services. By increasing clarity before death, counseling and facilitation may reduce

the probability, intensity, or complexity of later disputes. This does not mean that all

conflict can be prevented; family dynamics are inherently unpredictable. However,

preventive action can at least reduce ambiguity, improve documentation, and help

lawful intentions become more legible (Zhou, Wang, and Yao 2025).

The results also suggest an applied model for future programs. First, a program

should begin with a localized needs assessment to identify common misconceptions

and sensitive points. Second, counseling content should combine doctrinal clarity

with family-based scenarios. Third, a facilitation clinic should be provided

immediately after counseling so that momentum is not lost. Fourth, participants

should receive simple tools such as family-asset mapping sheets and document

checklists. Fifth, referral networks with notaries, legal aid, and public legal-

administration channels should be prepared in advance. Such a model can help

universities move from one-off seminars toward sustained community legal

empowerment.

There are also implications for interdisciplinary collaboration. Testament

counseling intersects with gerontology, social work, public administration, and

communication studies. Older adults may require capacity-sensitive explanation;

low-income households may need social assistance referrals; document problems

may need administrative support; and family dialogue may benefit from mediation

techniques. Therefore, community service on inheritance prevention is ideally

collaborative rather than confined to doctrinal legal expertise alone (Edmonds 2025).

This would improve both humane delivery and practical effectiveness.

Conclusion

This community service program demonstrates that counseling and facilitation

concerning testament deed preparation can serve as an effective preventive approach

to inheritance disputes among older adults and low-income urban families. The

intervention improved participants’ understanding of the legal function of a

testament, its basic validity requirements, the possibility of inheritance-related

conflict, and the importance of obtaining professional assistance. Under Article 875 of

the Indonesian Civil Code, a testament is a deed containing a person’s wishes

concerning the distribution of assets after death and may be revoked during the

testator’s lifetime. However, testamentary freedom is not unlimited because the

legitieme portie protects the absolute inheritance rights of certain heirs in the direct

line. The findings further indicate that legal counseling alone is insufficient.

Participants also require practical facilitation, including family-asset identification,

heir mapping, document verification, and referral to a notary or legal-aid institution.

The program revealed that incomplete civil and property documents, limited

financial capacity, fear of family conflict, and the perception that wills are only

relevant to wealthy families remain significant barriers to formal testament

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preparation. Accordingly, a sustainable community-service model should integrate

legal education, family communication, administrative assistance, and professional

referral. Universities, local governments, community cadres, notaries, and legal-aid

institutions should collaborate to expand access to preventive inheritance planning.

Although this study was limited to one urban community and did not measure long-

term behavioral outcomes, it demonstrates that early legal intervention can

strengthen legal awareness, protect the autonomy of older adults, and reduce

uncertainty that may later develop into inheritance disputes. It is therefore

recommended that similar programs be implemented periodically and accompanied

by post-program monitoring to assess the completion of testament deeds and the

resolution of outstanding documentation problems.

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