Mom put my sister on her checking account (joint acct). Mom died and left a good deal of money in acct. My sister ended up with my mother's money since banker told her it was hers (joint checking acct). In meantime, found an unsecured bank loan mother had made to grandson, about $15K outstanding and a hospital bill unpaid - $3K. Is my sister responsible to pay these bills from the joint checking account monies she took over?
1 Don't throw good money after bad
2 Is Sissy skating near the edge of the Law.
But mom did a trust, so if it was done properly then the estate avoids probate as trust don't do that as they live independently. Now here is where it could get interesting but you would need a good probate or estate attorney to deal with this and it will cost. Trusts need a source of funding in order to live otherwise they will dissolve and defund. So what is feeding the trust and who is the administrator of the trust? Now if you perchance are getting the bill for the 3k for end of life medical stuff, you can send a letter to the hospital with all the contact information on the trust. Believe me, they will bill the trust for the 3K and it will have to be paid as it is an expense of the grantor (your mom was the grantor of the trust). A trust can have debt against it and will have to pay those debts as a fiduciary duty required of a trust. For example, trusts own property and they have to pay property taxes. Somebody is billing the trust for administration too, so who is that person (Sissy or maybe the attorney who did the trust). Now about the grandson loan, who is holding the note? If it's a loan from grannie to grandson, then there probably is nothing you can do except know that this grandson will probably always have financial crisis after crisis in his future. But if it was done through a bank with her & grandson, then the trust can be made to pay as there is a fiduciary duty to pay the debt of the grantor. Hmmm, so does anyone but Sissy have the trust documents?
How did your sister have access to mother's assets to be able to put money in the joint account? Was she POA? IF there are any grounds for going after the money they might be based on the appropriateness/legality of moving the money into the account in the first place.
As pstiegman says in the first response, you'll really need a lawyer to sort this out and advise you what your legal options are at this point.
Surely it is your sister's name that is being sullied in all this. Your mother is blameless.
I'm not an expert and I could easily be wrong on this. I hope an AgingCare expert gives an answer here.
One of my sisters in on a joint account with our mom, to pay bills. There is never much in that account and so none of us would care if she kept it all in the end -- or we'd encourage her to take us all out for dinner to celebrate our mother. Life is sometimes easier when there isn't much money involved!