My father had his military pension checks and social security checks electronically deposited into my mother's checking account. Sometime during her declining health she jointly added my brother's name to that account. My mother had lung cancer and during her last two years of life she seldom went out and did not spend much money. Upon her death she had accumulated over $10,000.00 in her checking account, most it being my father's money. When my mother passed, she had already made my father sign the mortgage over to my brother and in her will she left 1/2 of her personal possessions to my brother and 1/2 to me. Upon her death, my brother forced my father from the home, took his car (which my mother also signed over to my brother) and he then took all the money in the checking account for himself. My father is now living in a state run elderly home and he could use this money to get a new car and for other living expenses, as he was literally throw out of his home without nothing (mind you this is the home he had bought with his GI bill decades ago). My father didn't even have a plate or fork to eat with. My brother then filed a no trespassing notice against me and refuses to distribute the belongings that my mother had willed to me.
My question is this: Does my dad have any legal recourse to his money? I believe that he was bullied and taken advantage of by both my mother and my brother. Also, How can I go about collecting my half of my mother's willed possessions? Would this include the money in the account? Could I legally obtain the money and return it to my father?
Side notes: My mother died two years ago this October. My brother is a police officer who abuses his authority to intimidate my father and I.
A similar thing happens when a person puts their money into their parent's account, and then the parent needs to apply for Medicaid. The money in the account is counted towards the parent's assets and causes problems with Medicaid. Why didn't he have the money placed into an account in his own name?
Angel
As for the estate, if brother is Executor and is abusing his authority, put all the documented facts into a letter and send that letter to the Surrogate's Court asking for a review of the Estate.
Pam's got it right, though. If did is expecting or receiving Medicaid for his stay, Medicaid's authority will dwarf your brother's. That money will have to be accounted for one way or another.