[sozo]

My 55 year old, unmarried brother died on Saturday morning, 4/21/12. He was living with my parents in CALIFORNIA. He was a co-signer on their bank accounts. (In case they died)

They were not signers on his personal banking accounts (no one imagined that he would die first).

There is no will. Our parents stand to inherit everything in his two checking accounts because they are his next of kin and he had no outstanding bills.

He has two checking accounts, ONE of which they have access too through his debit card.
Parents do have his bank debit card for one checking account.
And Parents do know the pin number.
But for only one of the two accounts.

How soon do they have to notify the bank of his death?
How illegal is it to access the account taking funds out via the debit card that they had verbal permission to access when he was alive, and that they will inherit anyway?

And do they have to get a lawyer or is it fairly simply to get authorization to empty the accounts?

Is there a $ amount in the estate that makes this very simple and if so what is that $ number?

Oviously the death cert will be presented at some point and it will be obvious that funds were removed after his death, but no one in the family will contest it.

Please tell us what are our options, and how bad might the recriminations be for taking money out of the account for a few weeks or months until parents get the legal okay to empty both accounts?

[sozo]

Sorry, I am brand new, I have posted this question twice because the first question disappeared, I couldn't find it so I started over. Now that I have posted the second similar question the first appears and the second is not here. So at some point there will be two.
Anyway I don't want to annoy anyone. So I am apologizing up front.

[Fr_Chuck]

No it is not legal for them to use his checking account, The accounts should be frozen by the bank and if they do not already know ( don't ask me how they find out, my mom's bank already knew two days after when I went in to see about her accounts when she died)

[AK lawyer]

... And do they have to get a lawyer or is it fairly simply to get authorization to empty the accounts?

Is there a $ amount in the estate that makes this very simple and if so what is that $ number?
...

Many states have provisions in their probate codes for the heirs to receive personal property (under a certain amount in value) belonging to a decedent by simply presenting an affidavit to the person who holds that property. I don't know off-hand if California is one of those states.