Sadly, my dad passed in 2023. I was his carer. A will was located a year after death but did not state anything about bank accounts. It just states about property and land to be divided equally. He only had one bank account anyway. He put my name on it in 2012. I cannot remember how the account was opened, I think I did it online for him. I don’t recall any questions at the time about what to do with the money in it if and when should my dad pass.This account was used to pay household bills etc. It wasn’t opened as a joint account. Dad only named me to have access to the money to pay the bills. There was very little money in it at the time of passing but I used it for some funeral expenses.I read somewhere recently that I may have been legally entitled to the remainder of the money in the account before paying funeral expenses? Would there be any truth to this?CCEveryone thinks that things should be very organised when a person dies. A will is available that clearly expresses their wishes, with executors named who are willing to act. All their assets are known and addressed in the management of their estate and the beneficiaries get whatever is destined for them at the end of the process.The truth is often far less clear. Most people don’t make a will at all – which, by the way, is crazy. Even where they do, the executor managing their affairs after their death does not always know the full extent of their assets – or indeed, sometimes, their debts. And finally, even where there is a will, sometimes it is just poorly written.All too often, sorting out someone’s affairs after they die is just messy. And the messier it is, generally the longer it takes to sort things out.There are two separate things here, well, three really.First, there is the question of who owns the assets in this joint account. Second, there is how your father’s will is written. And third, who was the executor and why were they not made aware of this account?Let’s start with the bank account.People can hold joint accounts for many reasons but what those reasons are can determine who actually owns the money in the account and what happens to it when they die.If a couple manages their affairs by way of a joint back account, with funds going into the account from both of them, they will generally hold the account by way of joint tenancy. And that means that when one person dies, the assets in the account pass to the other by way of survivorship without reference to the will.The account’s contents do not form part of the dead person’s estate and are not an issue for any executor, they pass immediately on death to the surviving accountholder.However, there are other forms of joint account. A person might hold a joint account with another for any one of a number of reasons – it could be a parent and a child, two friends saving together for a big holiday, or, like you, for convenience where a carer or other family member has signing rights on an account simply to allow for ease of access to pay bills as a person gets older, and possibly is unwell.These accounts are not held by way of joint tenancy but rather as tenants in common. Each person may own some portion of the funds or one person may own all the funds with the other simply there for convenience.While joint tenancy and tenancy in common sound similar, they are quite different. First up, an account held as tenants in common does form part of a dead person’s estate – or at least some of it does – and, as a result, all activity on the account will generally be frozen until the estate is sorted.With so many types of joint account these days, it is a good idea to inform the bank in writing when the account is set up that it is intended to pass by survivorship in the event one accountholder dies.Getting back to your account, it seems clear that – regardless of whether you opened it for your father or not – you were a signatory on the account for convenience and there was never any suggestion the assets in the account were yours.It seems clear, therefore, that the account should have been part of your father’s estate and notified to the executor if they were not already aware of it.You say your father only had the one account so it would be surprising that the executor would not look for it. As you are clearly close family, presumably you would have been known to the executor and vice versa – if you were not yourself the executor.Regardless, the money in the account is not yours – unless the will dictates otherwise.Stepping back a bit to consider your use of the funds for funeral expenses, that is usually the job of the executor and comes out of the dead person’s estate but many families do organise it themselves. It is certainly OK to use a person’s assets to pay for their funeral so there is no problem with that. You would want to keep receipts however, as it will need to be accounted for at some point.If the funds had been passing to you by survivorship, there would be no obligation on you to fund a funeral out of them as they are now your funds, not his estate’s. So, moving on to the will, which I, clearly, have not seen. You say it provided only what your father wished to do with his physical property and some land. This would be unusual. Most wills would make provision for financial assets as people tend to have some savings, no matter how limited, and an account here and there. A solicitor would generally ask specifically about such things and likely press the case if told there were absolutely no assets other than land and property. After all, there would certainly be state pension payments and such like.Also, most properly drawn up wills have what is called a “residuary clause”. These determines what happens any assets now already provided for or where an inheritance has been rejected for any reason – the residue of the estate. It is an obvious catch-all to cover assets that might be forgotten – such as this account, perhaps, or acquired after the will is drawn up.If there was a residuary clause, the money in your father’s account would have been distributed in accordance with what it says.If the will makes no mention of this account or financial assets in general, and if there is no residuary clause, things get a bit more complicated. Any assets not covered by a will are treated as if the person died intestate – without a will.In this case, there is a ranking order of who gets the money in the account. Top of the list would be any spouse though, I am guessing from your role as carer that his wife predeceased him.A spouse gets the whole amount where there are no children and two-thirds when there are children – with those children sharing the remaining third.In your case, where there are children but no spouse, the children share equally anything not covered by the will. If one of the children has died, any children they might have share their share equally among themselves.If there were no children, the money would be shared among your father’s brothers and sisters. If there are none, or they have all died, it falls to nieces and nephews and then, in their absence to more distant relatives.As he left at least one child, you, the money in the account will be shared by you with any brothers and sister you might have.Finally, back to the executor. Someone must have acted as executor to your father’s estate. That is an ongoing commitment where previously unknown assets like this emerge. Your responsibility is to inform the executor of the existence of this account and details of what is in it.Personally, I cannot believe an executor would not know about it as there would always have been the issue of who had paid for the funeral, but anyway.So, to conclude, no, you are not automatically entitled to the balance of funds in this account, although you may get some or all of it down the line depending on what the will says and whether you have any siblings.Please send your queries to Dominic Coyle, Q&A, The Irish Times, 24-28 Tara Street, Dublin 2, or by email to dominic.coyle@irishtimes.com with a contact phone number. This column is a reader service and is not intended to replace professional advice