Long sorry. My mother recently passed away. For years my sister and her family have been absolutely rinsing my parents for money. They guilted them into passing over huge sums over the years, as my parents didn’t want their grandchildren to suffer for their parents fecklessness.
They never learned to be financially sensible as the safety net was always there, even when the grandchildren grew up. They started to go to my parents for money for cars etc. this continued long after my father died. There is evidence of this in my mother’s paperwork, copies of cheques etc.
To ensure fairness, my mother opened a joint account with me in order to gift me some of what they have had over the years. Sadly, she was struck by dementia not long after and I had to use this money for care. By the time her property sold all this money was gone. Her estate now consists entirely of the residue from the house sale, and sits in the joint account, which has now passed into my sole name. I cannot keep it, nor would I, as it will have to be passed to her solicitor for probate and shared amongst the beneficiaries (me & my sister).
Am I able to deduct half the care home fees paid from the original money that was in the account before it ran out? I don’t want to do anything illegal, but she wanted me to have the money. Her estate is now below the inheritance tax threshold but she solely provided all funds.