A friend wants to add my name to her bank account in the event something should happen to her. She told me the money is mine. However, she has an outdated will that has her nephew listed on it. Can he get that money?
Well, anyone can sue to try to gain access to money, and the nephew could try to upset the apple cart here, but if a bank account is correctly established with joint owners, and marked to indicate that the owners have the right of survivorship (which is the default for joint accounts in most states), the account becomes the property of the surviving co-owner(s) when one co-owner dies. The accounts does not become part of the deceased co-owner's estate.
The cleanest way to create the joint account is as a completely new account. The funds from the old account can then be transferred to the new account.
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Well, anyone can sue to try to gain access to money, and the nephew could try to upset the apple cart here, but if a bank account is correctly established with joint owners, and marked to indicate that the owners have the right of survivorship (which is the default for joint accounts in most states), the account becomes the property of the surviving co-owner(s) when one co-owner dies. The accounts does not become part of the deceased co-owner's 