Pinehurst, GA Estate Planning Law Firms & Lawyers

Your parents should make an appointment to meet with an attorney. That attorney can assist your parents with drafting durable powers of attorney, Wills, advance directives, etc.

The only people who have access to an account after death are persons named on the account (POD beneficiary/joint tenant/ co-owner) and persons who have been appointed to serve as personal representatives of an estate. Unless you meet those criteria, you would not have access.

Your stepfather has the legal right to the year's support, and you cannot prevent him from making a claim for it under Georgia law. All that any other heir can do with regard to a year's support petition is try to argue that the amount being requested is too much, given the surviving spouse's other resources. Unfortunately, if you don't hire a good estate litigation attorney who has experience in contesting year's support claims, you will likely have little to no chance to succeed in such a challenge. I'm sorry for your loss, but unfortunately the year's support right given to a surviving spouse is pretty strong in Georgia. If your mother really didn't want your stepfather to receive anything from her estate, she REALLY needed to do some estate planning (not just a Will, either).