Mom passes. stocks worth about $1200, brokerage acct worth about $1800. no other assets accept two bank accts/joint with one named heir

If your mother had her principal residence in Georgia and they are Georgia joint bank accounts, by law they became the sole property of the surviving joint owner at her death. That means that the bank accounts do not become part of her probate estate. However: if the joint owner gives any share in those accounts to someone else, he is making a gift, because the assets are not subject to your mother's Will, either -- they belong 100% to the joint owner. That's why joint ownership of bank accounts with another person is not a good idea unless you really want that person to receive 100% of the accounts at your death. The only option which actually allows the joint accounts to be split without the surviving owner making gifts is if the joint owner can testify that the accounts were set up as joint accounts solely for the convenience of the mother (the deceased owner), and that there was no intent to create a true joint bank account. However, in that case, the bank account assets become part of the probate estate along with all of the other assets, and they cannot be distributed to anyone before the probate estate's administration has been properly completed.