<prompt> Human: The title pretty much says it all. Been a tough few weeks. Mom only had Medicare and medicaid, then had a stroke and was in the ICU for 19 days. We expect her medical bills to be sizable. She had recently sold her home and Ive confirmed that Im a joint owner of the account where that money was deposited. The bank has been informed that my mom has passed but we have not received the death certificate yet to confirm it with them. Will we need to use that money to pay all those bills, or does the money come under my ownership and become off-limits from anyone trying to get those bills paid off?Thanks.  <response>: Joint account is joint so your money since you can withdraw it, her estate can not freeze it for debts and you cannot be prevented from taking money out. I would take money out of joint account and put into individual account. 