Legal Question in Wills and Trusts in Virginia
Fathers Estate
My father passed away in October, 2005, everything in his will was to be split between me and my 4 siblings. In July b-4 he passed away he started taking kemo and radiation treatments which left him very week and confused. My oldest sister convinced him to add her to his checking and savings account as a joint account. My father told all of us that he told her that when he passed away that she was to make sure that all of his bills were paid and that the rest was to be split between all 5 of us. My sister told us the day that my father died that she was going to keep her promise to dad and when all of his bills had been paid she was going to divide it up. She has now changed her mind and says that her lawyer told her that because it was a joint account that it was now her money and she did not have to split it up. She never put any money in the accouts at all.
Is there anything that we can do?
1 Answer from Attorneys
Re: Fathers Estate
If your oldest sister has been appointed the executor of your deceased
father's will, you could request a hearing before the probate court, asking for an accounting of estate assets, and that if it's determined after a hearing that the monies in the joint account were intended as assets for the estate, that an order be entered requiring your sister to return those assets to the estate, and that if she fails to do so, that she be removed as executor and that a new executor be appointed.
If, however, your oldest sister is not the executor of your father's estate, whoever this person is should file suit against her for the return of the
monies in the joint account to the estate, if she's unwilling to do it voluntarily and without the coercion of a court order.
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