The checking account is joint with my name also. My brother and I are selling my mom's house. Do we put the full proceeds from the house into the joint checking account? I have set up automatic payments for the nursing home on a monthly basis. Just want to make sure we handle this correctly. She is not on Medicaid.
Check with a place like Charles Schwab or Fidelity to see about opening an account and investing her money in some safe income-generating investments.
There shoukd be absolutely NO co-minglong of money in this account. The only money that goes in is mom's and receipts and records need to be maintained for every outlay, including reimbusements to you for stuff you've bought for her.