How Do I Find Out Where Joint Bank Accounts of A Deceased Relative Are?

Full question:

My great aunt passed away almost 3 month ago. While she was alive she told my mother (her niece) and me (her great niece) that she had put my name on one of her savings accounts that holds $50,000 while we were visiting her (she lived in Noblesville Indiana). She went to the bank and put my name on her savings account including my address. She did this because my mother lives in Germany and I live in the United States which she thought would make it easier for us to receive the money after she passes away. She also has a nephew who lives in Noblesville and whom I believe she had made her power of attorney in case anything ever happens to her. My question is I am not sure if she had a will or not. If she did and her nephew was on the will. Will I ever receive the money from the savings account or not. I don't have any documentation about this and don't know the name of the bank. Is there anything I can do to find this out?

• Category: Wills and Estates
• Subcategory: Probate
• Date: 04/07/2025
• State: New Jersey

Answer:

We suggest calling the clerk of courts at the probate court in the county where the deceased resided at the time of death to see if the estate has been probated yet. You can also petition to have the will filed under the statute below. If there was no will, then she is considered to have died intestate, and the estate will be distributed under intestacy law. However, certain joint assets, such as a jointly held bank account or a house held as joint tenants with right of survivorship may pass directly to the joint surviving owner outside of probate. The bank would then be responsible for distributing the funds to the named beneficiary, rather than the executor or administrator of the estate. If the account was held as tenants in common rather than joint owners wit right of survivorship, the assets may be subject to probate.

Please see the following IN statute:

IC 29-1-7-4 (a) Any interested person or a personal representative....

(a) Any interested person or a personal representative named in the will may petition the court having jurisdiction of the administration of the decedent's estate:

(1) to have the will of such decedent, whether the same is written or is unwritten, is in his possession or not, is lost, destroyed, or without the state, probated;

(2) for the issuance of letters testamentary to the executor named in said will for the administration of said estate;

(3) for the appointment of an administrator with the will annexed if no executor is designated in said will or if the person so designated is not qualified, dead, or refuses to serve; or

(4) for the appointment of an administrator for the estate of any person dying intestate.

(b) A petition for probate may be combined with a petition for the issuance of letters testamentary, or as administrator with the will annexed, and a person interested in the probate of a will and in the administration of the estate may petition for both.

(c) No notice that a will is to be offered for probate or that it has been probated shall be required.

(d) No notice of the filing of, and hearing on, the petition described in this section shall be given to or served upon any person. If the petition described herein is filed in term time, it shall be heard forthwith by the court, and if filed in vacation, it shall be heard by the judge of said court if present, or in his absence by the clerk of the said court.

(e) If:

(1) an interested person petitions for the appointment of an administrator for the estate of a person dying intestate; and

(2) a petition to dissolve the marriage of the decedent and the decedent's spouse is pending in an Indiana court or the court of another state at the time of the decedent's death;

the court may not appoint the decedent's spouse to be the administrator of the decedent's estate.

(f) Subsection (e) does not apply to a petition for appointment of an administrator for the estate of a person dying intestate if the application of subsection (e) is waived in an agreement signed by each person, except a person who is incapacitated or a minor, who is eligible for a distribution from the decedent's net estate under IC 29-1-2-1. A waiver may be submitted to the court at any time before the appointment of an administrator.

[(Formerly: Acts 1953, c. 112, s. 704.) As amended by P.L. 182-1999, SEC. 1.]