I was down in Florida March 2025 to help my brother to get a Saturn car up from Port Charlotte to andTampa. The car was sold and weeks later the house was sold and the funds were put into my sister's checking accoun.t with my brothers name. Since my sister passed away my brotherr would not talk to me and I had to have the police check on him. He finally taalked to me but I don't feel is going to probate the will. suspect he is using the money for his own needs. I need a pro bono lawyer to help me. I am from Pennsylvania I do have a copy of the will and all the paperwork. I have no money I am 75 years old living on Social security. I just have enough money to feed my dog and myself. My brother could not tell me the date my sister died nor he doesn't know what she died of. He guess it was old age.
This isn't a caregiving issue, it is a civil legal issue.
I can tell you this: if your brother's name was joint on her checking and savings accounts, in many cases that money is legally considered his now. I was PoA for my Aunt who lived in SE Florida. I was joint on her account. When she passed the money in her bank accounts at PNC became mine, regardless of anything in her Will.
"Summary Administration" is Florida's simplified probate process. It is available if the probate estate (after subtracting exempt property) is $75,000 or less. Do you have a copy of her Will? Did she have any other assets, like CDs, annuities, bonds, other property, etc.? Or was your sister on Medicaid when she passed?
Start by calling the local Area Agency on Aging and ask for the Older Pennsylvanians Legal Assistance Program. They provide free legal services for many elder law issues. You should also contact the Pennsylvania SeniorLAW Helpline (1-877-727-7529), where attorneys provide free legal advice and referrals throughout the state. If they can't represent you directly, they can usually point you to the appropriate legal aid or pro bono attorney for your county.
Does your sister have any family? Who handled her funeral arrangements?
NH maybe 10K-12K a mo? 14 mos private pay… abt 150K. Funeral and burial….. abt 10K. If the house and car were older with delayed maintenance, they could have sold for a very low $ amount. If she still had a mortgage or a car loan, those would have had to been paid off in full for her to sell. So even less $.
Odyssey, do you have any idea of how much they sold for? Did she have outstanding debts that were paid off? Figuring this out could help give you an idea of what possibly remained in the bank account. Also please reread what Geaton posted on bank account ownership. If the bank account was coowner with the brother or was POD or TOD to him, then when Sis died all the $ left in it becomes your brothers. It will not be part of her Estate. Whatever left in the bank account transfers over to him entirely and bypasses probate as it is his and not an asset of the Estate.
Odyssey, Because of things like this, could be no $ & no assets so zero need to open probate. If she died and had no other real property &/or had no investments, then there would be no assets that would become her Estate and subject to their distribution as per the terms of her will. A will matters only if there are actually tangible assets owned by the now deceased as a part of the Estate. If there are assets, then they are to be distributed as per how the will was written once legit and timely claims against the Estate are dealt with.
So Odyssey, Do you know if there are other assets? If not, then sadly there’s no actual assets to deal with = no probate need to happen.
Really common for folks to outlive their $ as the costs of care are high.
He may not need to probate. She may have no assets to probate. If the bank account was co-owned, he gets what is left in the account. In my state, 10 yrs ago, if an estate was under 20k, it did not have to be probated.
The only thing I can think of is to contact sisters County Probate office and see if her Will has been filed with them. Or, did brother get a short certificate to be able to handle outstanding debts. Did he sign an affidavit saying her estate was under the cap for her state?
You need a lawyer asking brother to supply an accounting of where sisters money went. If all she had left was a bank account and brother was co-owner or a beneficiary, he got the money. By law, he does not have to give it to anyone else. The Will is null and void pretty much. Wills are only for "what if". If the principle has used the assets they have, there is nothing to inherit.
It looks like brother was your sisters main Caregiver. The one that was able to get her placed. The one who had to sell the car and house. Maybe he feels his has the right to keep what assets are left. Maybe there is not as much as you think there are.