My mother died in October of 2005. She was receiving a monthly check of $1,845 as a loan repayment she made to a software company. I notified the company of her death and for some reason the president of the company kept sending the checks to her address. The checks were made to my mother.
I found out this past February that my sister, who moved into my mother's house with her family, opened a new account at the local bank and has been depositing the checks with 'for deposit only' on the back. Twenty-six checks in all. She and my brother-in-law are joint owners on the account and both have written at least one check from the account. One for $888 and one for $800. The software company still has some $11,000 of the loan balance. When I found out about this and started asking questions, the bank and the company froze the accounts and had my sister and I sign a release from prosecution agreement just to get the funds. There is a Will but it has not been probated.
How was my sister allowed to do this and why would I need to sign a release form just to have access to my mother's money? Any banking laws broken here?
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If this matter makes it to court in an attempt of your mother's estate to recover any of the misdirected funds, you can be sure that the court will want to see details of the documents involved. If the $11,000 loan balance is part of your mother's estate, you may need to take the estate through probate in order to collect the balance of that obligation. Contact an attorney to get advice on how to proceed.
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If this matter makes it to court in an attempt of your mother's estate to recover any of the misdirected funds, you can be sure that the court will want to see details of the documents involved. If the $11,000 loan balance is part of your mother's 