Legal Question in Wills and Trusts in Georgia

If the bank account was joint with your and your mother, it is NOT part of the estate, not part of the will, and you keep 100% of it. Your brother has in effect stolen your money and should return it. If he does not, retain a lawyer.

If you were on the bank account with your mother then you were the beneficiary of the funds. You would not have had to make checks out to anyone and your mother's will would have been irrelevant as to the bank account.

I do not agree with Attorney Ashman that your brother stole your money absent more details. You voluntarily gave that money to the estate and once that occurred, it became an estate asset, The executor's commission is based on the total estate assets so it would be proper for his fee to include this.

And I don't know that it was your brother's duty as executor to say anything to you. If you did not bother to educate yourself or speak to a lawyer, why is this your brother's responsibility? did your brother know or have reason to know about this? Does he have a lawyer for the estate?

Assuming that any relief would be proper, you would bring a separate legal action against your brother as executor of the estate to reclaim this money from the estate.

However, unless there are added facts here which you do not disclose, I don't see how your brother engaged in any fraud to induce you to give him that money. You did it voluntarily for whatever reason and I am not sure that a court is going to relieve you of that mistake. This is my opinion - I have not researched the cases to see if this has happened before. So you should go and immediately see a probate attorney who practices in the county where the estate is being probated because you may have to file an action and any objections to any proposed accounting now.