Can Brother Keep Survivorship Funds?

San Antonio Express-News April 22, 2003 Can Brother Keep Survivorship Funds? copyright 2003, Paul Premack
Dear Mr. Premack: I have a brother who is trying to claim ownership of my mother’s bank accounts. He says that our father wanted this, and that before father died he put my brother as sole "survivor" on the accounts. As the only daughter, I am taking care of mother’s day-to-day needs. She needs those funds to pay her bills and provide security. It is all money that father and she saved up during their 61-year long marriage. Can he keep those funds? – R.D. It sounds like your father controlled the money and took care of all the decision-making during the years your parents were married. They weren’t alone in adopting that style of management, and your father may have thought that the other male figure in the family should take over. There is, however, a difference between management style and legal rights. Texas law says that the money your parents saved was community property since it was earned during the marriage. That gives your mother certain legal rights that may override any ownership claim your brother could bring. Your mother has ownership of half the funds. The law is very clear that she gets to keep her half without regard to the arrangements your father made. Her ownership cannot be taken away without her consent. On the other hand, your father had the right to dispose of the half that belonged to him unless other legal arrangements were made by mutual agreement between your parents. The San Antonio Court of Appeals decided a case several years ago that involved similar circumstances. In that case, a husband and wife in Boerne had three community property accounts, with right of survivorship. They had both signed contracts at the bank in which they agreed to leave the account balances to each other. The husband then, acting alone, had the bank take his wife's name off the three accounts and added his son's name. The new accounts gave a right of survivorship to his son, just like your father did. After the husband died, the son became court-appointed Guardian for his mother. When she died, he claimed ownership of the bank accounts. The trial court decided that all the money was community property and that husband’s actions to change them were invalid. He could not, acting alone, void the agreement that the spouses had signed (and as a consequence, he could not take away his wife’s right of survivorship). Thus, in that case all the funds in the accounts automatically became the property of the wife when the husband died – not just the half she already owned, but the entire amount. The survivorship rights claimed by the son were invalid. The accounts in this court case passed instead under the terms of the wife’s Will. I cannot tell from the information you provided whether your parents had a similar survivorship agreement over their community property accounts prior to your father’s modifications. However, such an agreement is very common. Your mother should obtain copies of the old account cards from the bank and take then to an attorney to define her true legal position.

Disclaimer: This column answers a specific legal question asked by an individual in Texas. The answer may or may not match your individual situation. Be careful not to treat this column as specific legal advice, as it may not meet your individual needs. It may give you a solid basis for discussion with your own attorney. You should consult with your personal attorney before you take any action on this or any legal issue. Also, please be aware that laws change, so this column is valid only as of the date it was published. This communication does not create an attorney-client relationship between the author and the reader.