my grandmother passed away the day after my twenty third birthday, due to a fall in her kitchen and poor care at a nursing home. She put me (grandson) as a joint owner on her checking account with rights of survivorship (no box was ticked on the paper, which then assumes with rights of survivorship) last year so I could pay her bills if something happened. The amount comes out to $26,553 in the account. back in 2007 she made out a will that named 9 people as beneficiaries. Three children and six grandchildren, which all of her estate, real, personal, or mixed, would be shared between 50/50. She would name her only son, executor of her will. I have lived with my mother at my grandmothers house since I can remember. On the day that she died, that's when things went wrong. My mother over dosed on a number of drugs and pills. My uncle taking my grandmothers jewelry boxes to his house to inventory. My uncle telling me I had thirty days to move out and his wife encourages me to take Sunday off to relax and get some stress off. I come back and my uncles changing the locks on the house and keeping all of the rooms locked up. Telling my mom that she can't come back to the house after her time at a psych award. We were paying for the bills at the time. my uncle is telling me to give him her checking account and check book because he needs it for house repairs. He says he doesn't have any money to use. her will went into probate yesterday and my uncles wife is telling us that there is only $1,400 in the estate account. But the lady I talked to at our bank said she had plenty of other funds that can be used. I feel like him and his wife have been lying to me and the rest of our family about a lot and I feel like he's trying to do something fraudulent. I don't plan on spending the money for years to come but I have, since her death, closed out her checking account and deposited it into my savings. I'm going to further then, move that to a new savings account, separate from mine to keep until I have a better understanding. Because I don't want to give it to him if his only intention is to rob me due to my lack of knowledge. I have so many people telling me to keep the money and don't let him touch it and then I have him and his wife telling me they need the money to pay for debts and bills and car payments. I believe my grandmother wanted me to keep that money but my uncle thinks otherwise. He said he's going to sue me for a couple reasons, such as if the amount I kept is more than my inheritance, they'll sue me for the difference. I told them I just wanted a better opinion rather than just listening to him and his wife tell me what to do. And all the people I have talked to at the bank and probate office, that it's my money and I'm to do whatever I wish with it. Lots of my family agrees that I should keep it and support me, and my uncle tells me my family will hate me forever if I keep it. I don't want to be taken advantage of, but I also don't want to get myself into any legal trouble...
should I pay for the court fees they have and the bills for the house that I'm not living at anymore?
get an attorney. ^^ Seriously. This is far from over and you'll be far from the last person to lawyer up.
If the money was in a joint account with you than that money is legally yours. He can eat a dick. Sad to he's turning on everyone after your grandmother's death. Something similar happened why my family when my grandmother passed. She left me and one of my aunt's pretty much everything and the other two aunt's were furious about it. Sorry for your loss man and I hope everything works out for the best.
I'm going to call around for some lawyers tomorrow. I'm getting sued here very soon. I just don't have money to blow on a lawyer. Hopefully I can get some good needed advice from a free consultation. My uncles argument will probably be the fest that I haven't put any funds into the account so it should still count as one of her assets
I don't get it. You had the rights to her account if she passed but everything is being split 50/50. Or is that everything excluding that joint account? If it's the second keep the money and tell them to fuck off. Seems like an easy win in court, though I have no idea how much court and lawyers cost.
I agree I'm a bit unclear with what has been divided in the will and what your uncle thinks he's entitled to this joint account for.
I asked a family member of mine who is a lawyer a question similar to yours. She says that if two people have a joint bank account and one of them dies, the money automatically belongs to the other person in the account. It does not matter if the person who died left a will saying they were going to leave a family member money from that account, because by law the money belongs to the other person who's name is in the joint account. As far as I'm concerned, that money is yours. Your uncle sounds like he's trying to scam you out of some money. Look at how he treated you and your mother after your grandmother died. Look at how shady he was by changing the locks on the doors while you were out. Oh and he's threatening to sue? he's bluffing. If he claims he needs the money cuz he's broke and has house repairs to do, then how the fuck is he going to have money to sue you? he's trying to scare you, don't fall for it. My suggestion: talk to an attorney about this ASAP. I doubt we're in the same state so the law may be different for you.
she has stated in her will that all of her debt to be paid off asap after death. then it states "I give, devise, and bequeath one half of all my estate, real, personal, or mixed in equal shares to my three children and one half to my six grandchildren. In equal shares. should I split the account up according to that and write everyone checks? the executors wife told me this morning all I have to do is put the money into a cashiers check payable to my grandmothers name and give it to her. they're saying because I didn't contribute to her account that it falls under part of her assests. house repairs he's talking about include paint, hardwood floors, knocking out kitchen walls for an open kitchen, extended the master bathroom, running central air in the house. Pressure washing the house, etc. his first reason was to repair the house so it can sell high (prced at $202k from what they said) now they need it to pay off her final bills and the debt from the will going into probate
I asked the executors wife what happens after I give her the cashiers check and if it goes through probate again. Here's her answer Yes, the probate has already started ( we had to pay on her account at probate). An estate account has been established, with a tax ID number. After everything is complete, the Estate Lawyers will issue checks to the beneficiaries. This will take some time.
Legally.. I feel as if you'd be fine to do whatever you want, but you should talk to a local lawyer. Just call around til you can find a free consultation. Morally.. depends on what you feel is right. You could take that money, pay off HER bills.. then split the remainder up. You could take it and pick up and move and never talk to them again. Sounds like your uncle is a tool.. but if he really is looking to fix up the house to sell, you could talk to everyone who is to be getting money and see about investing it in the house provided that when it is sold, the profit gets split up how your grandmother wanted. Which brings up another question.. whose name is the house in? If it were me.. and I didn't decide to say fuck it and bounce for CO.. I'd look into fixing up the house to sell provided the profit is shared properly. I'd be getting a contract made up for that though.
they' they're they're saying that my argument in court would be to prove that I put a big account of money into that account. I don't feel like going to court or dealing with this anymore. I'm probably doing the wrong thing but what I'm going to do is put the amount of money that was in her account into a cashiers check written to the Estate of my grandmothers name and give that to them. They said they were already taxed for the account when it went into probate. that way, she told me, the money that is withdrawn from that will be monitored by the estate so they can't be cheating with it. am I doing the right thing? I made an appointment with a lawyer tomorrow at 2pm, 60 miles away from where I'm at currently. Should I still go or cancel? I feel like I'd have to prove that I was entitled to that money and I just don't think I can prove it.