Legal Question in Banking Law in California

My wife is listed on a Wells Fargo brokerage account started for her by her "grandfather" (not by blood or marriage. Probably not relevant.) The account names have always been listed as follows

Grandfathers Name & Wifes Name JTWROS

The accounts primary purpose was a savings for my wife for when her grandfather found it fit to give to her. All contributions were made by her grandfather. .

After researching the JTWROS term, it would seem that my wife is 1/2 owner of the account and either party needs the others permission to make any change to the account. Our interpretation is that they are both 1/2 owners of the account and the other will receive the full value of the account upon eithers passing. Is that a correct interpretation? Also, about 5 years ago, her grandfather decided he wanted to use the dividends from the account as income in which he asked my wife to sign a form allowing this. The signature was necessary to complete the change

and could not be executed without her consent.

Several years ago, the Grandathers mental capacity began deteriorating. His brother has been give Guardianship over his brother and all of his financial affairs. At that time, the brother listed himself as Guardian on the account.

The account now reads Guardian Brothers Name for Grandfathers Name & Wifes Name JTWOS

As of last month, he has called Wells Fargo and restricted any information that my wife can get on the account. She was told that the Guardian has restricted the account so that only he could get information on it. My wife called her account manager and asked her to look into this. The manager told us that Legal told her that the brother has been appointed guardian for the entire account, not just his brothers half. They said that it is done for her grandfathers protection. We don't quite understand how one person can lose access to their half of the account in this way.

Is this an error on the banks part for making him guardian over the entire account? Do we have any recourse to correct this? Someone to complain to or file a grievance? The account is currently valued at about $8000, so it may not be an amount worth pursuing with lawyers although we don't know what something like this would cost to "fix".

Any advice on what our options are would be great. Due to a family squabble between parents and brother over rightful guardian and his money, contacting the guardian for information is not an option.

The account was started in Illinois and my wife now lives in California if that has any bearing.

Thank in advance for your assistance

Allen

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