Liquidating Bank Accounts

What is the name of your state? Washington

My brother took some bank (CD accounts) papers to Attorney's office who is probating our Mother's will. These were papers my Mother had of her banking accounts. My brother was surprised when the Attorney mentioned he noticed my brother's name listed on the papers of some of these accounts and mentioned that if the bank has him listed as beneficiary, he will receive these monies. This brother is also the Executor of the Will.

It was specifically mentioned by the Attorney that he couldn't tell from the paperwork if this was the case. This possible change by Mother was never discussed with my brother and we all thought the bank accounts were going to be distributed to all siblings so this would have been something Mother did without telling anyone. I have two questions. Is there any possible reason my brother's name would appear on these papers unless he is indeed the recipient of these accounts? Second question is how long by law does the bank have to liquidate the bank CD account and send monies to the Lawyer for Probate?

How can you expect us to answer your questions if we can't even see the papers you are talking about? It is possible your brother could have written his name in on his mother's papers or your mother could have added it, but the papers at the home are somewhat irrelevant. How is the brother's name shown on the documents--as beneficiary or executor? Does the will mention the CD's?

What really matters is what paperwork the BANK has on these CD's: if he is the officially designated beneficiary of this money, then the money will go to him. It is also possible that mother could have intended to have brother named as beneficiary of this money by ASSUMING that if he was executor that he would automatically turn it over to the estate for dividing up, but if that was her intent then it was a mistake to have him named as a beneficiary but she probably was not properly advised about how to do this correctly--she should have not named any beneficiary at all so the money would go directly into the estate.

You need to ask the attorney to find out what paperwork the bank has about this (if you are lucky they will tell him), but the bank will probably not release information to anyone besides the executor. Sure will be interesting to see how this situation ends up.

DANDY DON IN OKLAHOMA ([email protected])

Dandy Don,
Since brother didn't pay close attention to the papers and where his name was on them (the attorney was the one who noticed brother's name on the paper's and it wasn't a clear assumption to him that my brother was the beneficiary) it isn't clear to me why or where his name is written on the pages and that is why I wasn't able to give a clearer picture.

My brother's remark to me on the phone since I am out of state, was that the Attorney said if the beneficiary form at the bank says my brother is the beneficiary, he can keep the monies. Although I understand the legal affect of being named as the beneficiary, it seemed to me that the attorney should have caught the fact that my mother could have been improperly advised since my mother made her will with this attorney over five years ago and stated that she wanted this brother to receive just a little larger percentage than the rest of the siblings.

Such good thoughts you provided. Appreciate your time on this. Unfortunately for me, you described my worst suspicions. Yes, it is even probable that my mother was not properly advised and did think my brother (executor) would put the money directly into the estate no matter what. To further your theory, there is another brother involved that appeared to be a favorite with mother and I can not rationale the possibility he would be left with less.

I did digress and will post later to let you know the outcome. If you have any further comments, I do respect your thoughts.

Dainty

Did mother discuss her intentions with her executor before she died?

If I were you, you should be gently trying to persuade brother executor that it was mom's intention to split the estate fairly and equitably amongst the heirs and find out if brother is going to be agreeable to doing this. And you still haven't mentioned whether the CD's are mentioned in the will or not.

Maybe mom did intend for this brother to get more, but what an unexpected surprise this produces for the other heirs!

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Mother did not mention a word of any possible changes to her will to the executor (brother) or to her attorney. What a shame that mother declined to discuss her financial or will situation as it was her nature to keep very private and of course that is adding to the confusion. I imagine in her mind everything was fine and she was abiding by her will that was put in place over five years ago.

I will be mailed a copy of the will in approximately a week that is how recent the probate started and is also when I can tell if the CD's are mentioned but I doubt that they will be.

This week-end plan to have this gentle discussion with brother but his immediate attitude that most of it was probably meant for him leaves me with little encouragement. Have every intention of finding out brother's position sooner instead of later.

If mother intended to leave a couple of the CD's that had most of the monies from her estate to brother, I expect that she would have called her attorney and had my brother's higher percentage of the rest of her monies removed and had us all treated equally for the remainder of the money or perhaps even left his name off of the remainder of the will.

Dainty

Update to anyone following this post. The CD's weren't mentined in the will and brother didn't receive all of them. A couple are for the estate. As frustrating as I find it, brother did receive the monies on the ones I mentioned in the above posts and has decided they were meant for him. This was a convenience factor for him since having spent a great deal of thought on this, I still think Mother was probably ill advised and meant for it to go into her estate to be shared by all siblings. We'll never know and if anyone reading this can avoid putting their children in this situation, my time spent on this post will be worthwhile.

No matter how well meaning a surviving parent is who will be leaving their estate to their children when they die, the paperwork you have on file will decide how your monies are distributed. If you don't get it right (maybe poor advice from a financial institution), you've possibly set sibling against sibling even though that might not have been what you planned.