A Forensic Handwriting Expert Weighs In On Logan’s Will On Succession

Spoilers ahead for Succession Season 4, Episode 4. The fight over who will succeed Logan Roy as Waystar Royco’s CEO on Succession was always going to be a fraught one, but few expected it to be reduced to a single stroke of a line. During Season 4’s fourth episode, “Honeymoon States,” Frank (Peter Friedman) discovers a rogue document from Logan’s will that states Kendall (Jeremy Strong) should be named CEO upon the Roy family patriarch’s death. However, at some point after the document was typed up, Logan (Brian Cox) either underlined or crossed out Kendall’s name — leaving the Roys and others confused about what Logan’s final wishes actually were.

The line itself begins right under Kendall’s name and then moves slightly upward over the typed text. Kendall first seems to see the line as emphatic, but Shiv (Sarah Snook) quickly suggests that maybe their father had meant to strike out her brother’s name. While the siblings and the Old Guard (Gerri, Frank, and Karl) reluctantly decide to name Kendall and Roman (Kieran Culkin) as interim CEOs by the episode’s end, the question of whether Logan had doubled down on or regretted his decision to name Kendall as his successor is weighing heavy on everyone’s minds — including viewers.

In an attempt to get answers to this burning question, Bustle reached out to Kevin P. Kulbacki, a forensic document examiner and CEO of KDX Forensic Consulting, to see if the handwriting expert could help fans understand Logan’s will and this mischievous line a little better. “Situations like this do come up quite often, especially when it comes to documents with significant implications like wills,” Kulbacki tells Bustle over email. But although it’s common for people to dispute who actually signed a document — and that can be determined by Kulbacki by comparing a signature to a number of known samples — it’s much harder to surmise the intent or mental state behind someone’s markings. Plus, doing so “wouldn't be backed by science, nor would it ever be acceptable in a court of law,” Kulbacki says.

Still, there are a few aspects of Logan’s will that Kulbacki notes may be worth considering. Below, he explains the examination process and points out one important detail this Succession episode didn’t address.

If Shiv, Roman, or someone else wanted to argue against the document's validity and Logan's wish to place Kendall as CEO, where would they start?

It really comes down to the specific allegation. This also would best be asked of an attorney as it's ultimately related to the legal jurisdiction. With that said, from a document standpoint, common things that people might dispute could include whether or not it actually is Logan's signature, or whether the alterations were done by Logan. For the handwritten entries, such as the list on the bottom right corner of the page, we would be able to compare them to known handwriting of Logan's to determine if it actually is his handwriting.

From there, I would then also recommend that we conduct a non-destructive ink differentiation examination to see whether or not the handwritten additions are consistent in ink properties to the additions (box, star, and line). Even if they are consistent, it wouldn't mean that Logan was the one who did them, but it at least would provide some circumstantial information on which they could determine more. Basically, we would examine each and every facet of the document to try to figure out how it was created.

You said forensic handwriting experts cannot determine intent, only authorship. But based on your experiences, how often is something underlined for emphasis versus being crossed out?

Unfortunately, there aren't any scientific studies on underlining versus striking out to be able to provide more information on this one. Simply put, if this was a real scenario, no qualified expert in the world would be able to give a scientific opinion as to whether or not this was an underline or a strikethrough.

The other thing I have to point out is that we don't know Logan's level of motor control (and no one in the room mentioned it for that matter). That is to say, the degree to which he can execute fine motor movements, such as drawing a line. While the signature appears at first glance to be somewhat fluid, the line does look somewhat slowly executed and isn't exactly straight. Given that we don't know when the line was added, we don't know what his capabilities were at that time. If his writing ability had diminished, then even the act of writing a line with precision could have been a difficult task. Essentially, there are so many known-unknowns in this scenario that we can't make any sort of determination.

Is there anything the episode gets wrong or right about wills or these types of situations?

From a document standpoint, it appears to be on letterhead, typed, signed, etc. Depending on the jurisdiction, the requirements for wills really vary. Some jurisdictions require them to be notarized formal documents with witnesses, while others can be entirely handwritten and unwitnessed. From that standpoint, the document is pretty normal.

One thing I do find interesting is they essentially go from finding a document to naming the successors in a very short time period. Given that the document was just found, who is to say that Logan didn't have a more recent will as well? That does happen from time to time, and so the rush to act on the will could certainly complicate things further if it turns out they don't have the most recent version; although, given that the company is publicly traded, I don't believe it would impact the company per se, despite them using the will to help bolster Kendall's credibility.

Purely as a Succession fan, do you think Logan underlined or crossed out Kendall's name?

Speaking strictly as a fan, I think that if the will was written [around] 4 years ago and edited approximately 18 months ago, then Kendall was probably on good enough terms with Logan that it was intended to be an underline, as generally speaking Kendall and Logan were on much better terms when the show started. Regardless of whether it was meant as an underline or a strikethrough, one thing is clear — the line begins under the K of Kendall, and is preceded by "my son," so either way... Sorry Shiv!

This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.