My sister and I were on a joint account with my mother. When my mother died, my sister took all the money out of the account. Can she legally do that?
Untitled
In most cases, yes. If the account was established with rights of survivorship, ownership is transferred to the surviving joint owners on the death of one of the owners, so at the time of your mother's death, the account became jointly owned by you and your sister. Standard joint account agreements provide that either joint owner has full rights to withdraw all or any portion of the account, and even can close the account.
It appears that your sister had a right to withdraw all of the funds. Whether she had a legal right to keep the funds from you is quite another matter, and it does not involve the bank. It's between you and your sister. If you believe that she took money that belongs to you, you may have to talk to a lawyer if your sister won't budge.
BankingQuestions.com is a free service made possible by the generous support of our advertisers. Advertisers are not responsible for site content. Please help us keep BankingQuestions.com FREE by supporting our advertisers. When you see an ad for a product or service you may have an interest in, click through to learn more.
Accounts
Article
Q&A
Podcast
Video
Blog
Discussions
PDF
Powerpoint
In most cases, yes. If the account was established with rights of survivorship, ownership is transferred to the surviving joint owners on the death of one of the owners, so at the time of your mother's death, the account became jointly owned by you and your sister. Standard joint account agreements provide that either joint owner has full rights to withdraw all or any portion of the account, and even can close the account. 