Legal Question in Wills and Trusts in Pennsylvania

Why would money be transferred into the estate account? Do you have proof that the brother was added for "convenience" purposes?

Here is the PA Statute on Multi-party accounts:

20 Pa.C.S.A. � 6304. Right of survivorship

(a) Joint account.--Any sum remaining on deposit at the death of a party to a joint account belongs to the surviving party or parties as against the estate of the decedent unless there is clear and convincing evidence of a different intent at the time the account is created. If there are two or more surviving parties, their respective ownerships during lifetime shall be in proportion to their previous ownership interests under section 6303 (relating to ownership during lifetime) augmented by an equal per capita share for each survivor of any interest the decedent may have owned in the account immediately before his death; and the right of survivorship continues between the surviving parties.

(b) Trust account.--At the death of the trustee or the survivor of two or more trustees, any sum remaining on deposit belongs to the person or persons named as beneficiaries, if surviving, or to the survivor or survivors of them if one or more die before the trustee or last surviving trustee, unless there is clear and convincing evidence of a contrary intent; if two or more beneficiaries survive, there is no right of survivorship in event of death of any beneficiary thereafter unless the terms of the account or deposit agreement expressly provide for survivorship between them.

(c) Other cases.--In other cases, the death of any party to a multiple-party account has no effect on beneficial ownership of the account other than that the rights of the decedent become part of his estate.

(d) Change by will prohibited.--A right of survivorship arising from the express terms of an account or under this section, or a beneficiary designation in a trust account cannot be changed by will.

For inheritance tax purposes, the money is taxable; here is an excerpt from an article:

For Pennsylvania inheritance tax, on the death of a co-owner of a joint account or any joint property, the taxable estate of the co-owner includes a fraction of the value of the property. The fraction is one divided by the number of co-tenants. For example, if three brothers are joint owners of an account, on the death of one of them, one-third of the value of the account is subject to Pennsylvania inheritance tax. Whose funds were contributed to the account are irrelevant for this purpose. Joint accounts created within one year of death are taxable as they would have been before the joint account was created. For example, if Mom adds your name to an account as a joint owner and then dies six months later, the whole value of the account is subject to inheritance tax, not just one-half.

For Pennsylvania inheritance tax, joint property is taxable even if the decedent's name was added only for convenience.