64.1-140 - Duty of fiduciaries as to joint accounts.
§ 64.1-140. Duty of fiduciaries as to joint accounts.
A fiduciary charged with the administration of the estate of a decedent shallbe under no obligation unless requested in writing by someone in interest,within six months from the date of the initial qualification on the estate,to assert a claim on behalf of the decedent's estate to any funds which may,at the time of his death, be on deposit in any financial institution in thename of said decedent and one or more other persons when the terms of thecontract of deposit, or the laws of the state in which such funds aredeposited, permit such financial institution to pay (1) to either of suchpersons, whether the other, or others, be living or not, or (2) to a namedsurvivor or survivors.
The fiduciary, or his attorney, shall acknowledge receipt of such request inwriting within ten days of receipt of such notice, and if the fiduciary bethe same person as the surviving cotenant of such funds, said fiduciary shallsegregate such funds, and place same in an interest-bearing account, awaitingan appropriate decree concerning the ultimate disposition of same, and saidfiduciary-cotenant shall not use such funds for his own personal account.
If the fiduciary-cotenant accedes to the request that such funds be treatedas estate funds, said fiduciary may distribute same according to law withoutany decree of court referred to above.
(Code 1950, § 64-131.1; 1966, c. 600; 1968, c. 656; 1970, c. 425.)