bank accounts

What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? South Carolina My mother was deceased in Oct. 2009. My siater is personal represenative. At the time of mother's death, there was $7000.00 in her checking account. On the assets that my sister listed for probate, she listed my mother's checking account as $114.00. Now when mother was alive, she had my sister listed on the checking account with her as a joint account so my sister could help pay my mother's bills. All of the money belonged to my mother, and my sister has never deposited a penny of her own money in this account.

(1) When my mother passed, aren't all assets frozen, and should be reported as such to the probate court, or does my sister have the right to spend the money as she sees fit, since she was on the account? When we (heirs) departed my sister's, after mother's funeral, she said the money in the account would be reported to probate in full, but was not as promised.

(2) Do I have the right as an heir to demand bank statements from the bank with proof of me as an heir, or does a hired attorney have to be used to obtain the records, and can these statements be listed to the probate court records? Thanks for your help.

(1) When my mother passed, aren't all assets frozen, and should be reported as such to the probate court, or does my sister have the right to spend the money as she sees fit, since she was on the account? When we (heirs) departed my sister's, after mother's funeral, she said the money in the account would be reported to probate in full, but was not as promised.

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if it was a joint account, it becomes the property of the surviving owner. It is then hers to do with as she wants.

(2) Do I have the right as an heir to demand bank statements from the bank with proof of me as an heir, or does a hired attorney have to be used to obtain the records, and can these statements be listed to the probate court records? Thanks for your help.

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you might want to check the probate records first. It is available to anybody that wants to pay for copies. If you know how to present a challenge to something, you do not need an attorney to do it for you. If you do not present it properly, it can basically be ignored.

Your sister, if asked, I would suspect is more than willing to detail out how the 7K netted down to 114 and what bills were paid.

Kiawah said:

Your sister, if asked, I would suspect is more than willing to detail out how the 7K netted down to 114 and what bills were paid.

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if it was a joint account, she has no responsibility to make an accounting to anybody and there is no requirement the money be used for the mothers estate expenses.

if it was simply a joint account, the money became the sisters and that is all there is to it.

Kiawah said:

Your sister, if asked, I would suspect is more than willing to detail out how the 7K netted down to 114 and what bills were paid.

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It wouldn't matter what she spent the money on. She could have taken a trip to France if she wanted to, it was her money since it was in a joint account.

justalayman said:

if it was simply a joint account, the money became the sisters and that is all there is to it.

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Well.... Just to toss in the potential for some mayhem. (Although I admit that I don't know if there is precedent in South Carolina case law to entertain such a claim.)

The OP could make a claim that the account was joint for convenience purposes only and should be considered part of the probate estate.

Of course, that's likely to cost more than $7K.

And it is possible that sister did the honorable thing and paid funeral and other expenses from the account and is just muddying the waters by including the account in the probate estate inventory and accounting.