GAAtty
This is a tricky issue. If you are talking about thousands of dollars, it is worth talking to an attorney about, and I don't know the law of your particular state. There are two general approaches that states have to joint accounts. One view is that the money in the joint account belongs equally to the parties. The other view is that the money in the account belongs to the parties in proportion to what they put in. This issue comes up often with estates and elderly people, so an attorney who does estate and probate litigation would have experience with this, probably. For example, what is often seen is that Grandma has an account with money and puts Grandchild on the account joint with her so that Grandchild can help pay the bills. The only money ever put into the account by anyone is Grandma's. When Grandma dies, Grandchild claims that the entire account is hers, but the courts here have said that Grandchild only owns what Grandchild put in, which is nothing. These kind of court rulings are being seen more and more often because of Alzheimer's, where elderly people often are not aware of what is happening with their accounts. Check with an attorney who does civil litigation or probate litigation in your state, to see which point of view your state adopts. If you father is elderly, the probate attorney may be the best.
