A Tennessee woman took to Reddit to ask for advice, saying her mother gradually emptied her younger brother’s inheritance from a joint bank account. There was roughly $9,000 of what she believes should have been close to $250,000 remaining. She laid out the situation in a post on the r/legaladvice forum, asking what options her brother might have.
The poster, who says she’s a 27-year-old woman, says she and her brother each received life insurance money after their father died in 2019. By mid-2020, the estate was settled. That’s when both siblings set up separate accounts to hold the funds. Because her brother was 18 and didn’t feel ready to manage that much money on his own, she says he added their mother’s name to his account so she could help him keep track of it, while her own accounts never carried her mother’s name.
The problem surfaced when she asked her brother to lend her about $10,000 and the two went to the bank together. A teller told her brother the account held far less than the two expected to find. According to the poster, the bank statements showed transfers from her brother’s account to their mother’s checking account over roughly five years, including more than $100,000 in 2021, before they stopped this past February.
That evening, the poster said she and her brother confronted their mother, who acknowledged taking the money and said it had gone toward bills for herself. She had also used them for the poster’s stepfather as well as the family dog’s veterinary bills. The mother has since expressed remorse and a willingness to repay the money back. The poster doesn’t think this matter is particularly a criminal on, since her mother’s name was on the account. That’s why she asked for advice on what kind of civil matters might be available.
Does a Joint Owner Have the Right to Take the Money?
My mother stole my brother's inheritance.
byu/Ok-Action1361 inlegaladvice
The poster says her mother’s name was on her brother’s account, and both she and some of the commenters treated that as joint ownership. Under the rules that govern joint accounts, any co-owner typically has the legal right to withdraw and spend the funds without the other owner’s consent, according to the Maryland People’s Law Library. That’s why the poster and those commenters concluded that a co-owner draining an account usually isn’t treated as theft.
But having the right to withdraw money isn’t the same as owning it. Consumer finance guidance says that when a co-owner who contributed little or nothing pulls large sums from the account, the withdrawals can even be treated as a gift, according to CNBC. Recovering the money would generally mean showing in court that it belonged to the brother and was never given away.
What Could the Brother Do Now?
Commenters pointed the poster toward an estate or civil attorney. The consensus was to negotiate a written settlement and repayment plan instead of suing. Some suggested securing the debt with an agreement. or a life insurance policy naming the brother. That way, the payback commitment would hold up over time.
The poster says she kept the bank statements and recorded her mother admitting to the transfers. Next, she plans to draft a contract before sitting down with her mother, stepfather, and brother to work out a resolution. She also says she’s worried about her other siblings, since pulling repayment from her mother and stepfather’s property could shrink what they might one day inherit.
The problem has yet to be resolved, though there was plenty of advice offered. It remains to be seen what the poster will end up being able to do as a response to her mother’s actions.