Attorney puts funds in his own account

What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? CA
My brother passed away in Feb 2008. My sister was the executor. The estate was disbursed in Nov 2008. The attorney held back $1,000 for "expenses that may come up". 15 months after the funds were disbursed and he is clearly avoiding our requests for the money. First he said we would have it by year end 2009. Then on Jan 24, 2010, he said "it is coming".
My questions : is this common for some $ to be held back? If so, how long should he be able to hold onto it?
My sister just informed me too that the attorney had her transfer the money from my brother's bank to his (the attorney's) account, so it would be easier for him to pay bills. So the attorney had his money ($130,000) in his personal account for probably 6 months earning interest. We didn't get any of that money. Is this illegal?

Send him a certified letter stating that unless he has issued a check within a week's time (give him a specific deadline date), that you will be filing a complaint with the California State Bar Association (you can find them via a search engine search). If he is wise, he will not welcome an inquiry into this matter and will do everything he can to resolve it as quickly as possible.

Thanks. I called the State Bar this morning and they suggested the same thing. Regarding the money having been transferred from my late brother's account to the attorney and held for 6 months : they said that if a joint account was setup (attorney and executor) the interest ends up going to the state bar! I asked her to repeat that because that seems unethical and ridiculous. I know for a fact that there was no accounting of the interest on that money sent to us after it was transferred. My sister is not sure if it was a joint account, or just in the attorney's name.

If the funds were to go to the attorney, it should have been put in a client trust account and not a personal account.

I consider it unethical for an attorney to insist that we relinquish control of my brother's estate "to make it easier to pay bills". My sister as executor could have just as easily written the 3-4 checks, and we could have been earning interest on that money. Conservatively, we are talking about $1,000 in interest. At this point, it's not clear if the money was transferred to a personal account (in which case the interest went to the attorney) or if it was an attorney-client trust account (in which case the money went to the state bar, according to the person at the bar I talked to on the phone). I still can't believe that is what the person at the CA state bar told me!