Elderly mother is a joint owner with grown son on a checking account (non-interest bearing). There is also a grown daughter who is not on account. Mother passed away in April 2015. It is now July 2015. We just discovered that son has not made any changes on account and is still depositing oil & gas revenue checks made payable to his mother into account. He is also transferring funds into his joint account with his wife. Should we ask/tell son that an estate account needs to be opened and he must inform energy companies that checks must come to the estate of his mother? It doesn't appear that he is sharing any of the money with sis.

Whether or not someone establishes an estate account or whether he is sharing the funds with his sis is not really a concern of the bank. The real problem is that the bank, with knowledge of the passing of the mother, is now on the hook to her actual estate for each and every check you have allowed to be deposited into this account since gaining that knowledge. If this is a joint account with the right of survivorship, the money that was in the account at the time of death became the son's regardless of any estate.

The bank should have flagged the account immediately to stop any future deposits with mom's name on it. You should probably give your legal counsel a call at this point.

Ouch! Actually, we did flag the account. Someone dropped the ball and I need to find out why this happened so it won't happen again. Thanks for the response and recommendation.