My grandfather passed away July of this year. His eldest son…

Basically all of this is going to be covered by the Texas Probate Code. A guardian and/or administrator (a guardian is for someone that is living, while an administrator is for someone who has died) does not, by virtue of being guardian or administrator, get any additional rights to the property of the ward/deceased person. So, generally speaking, no, the guardian and/or administrator of the estate cannot take the assets for himself. If he does so, that is a breach of his fiduciary duties, and can be removed from this position by the court. Any of the heirs can petition for an accounting and make a motion to have the person removed from his post.

Now in terms of the assets, a POD account passes outside of probate, meaning that it is not going to be a part of the estate that gets apportioned to each of the surviving heirs, unless you can show that the surviving heirs were born after the POD account was created. So what that means is that the POD account automatically vests in the person whose name was listed as the POD beneficiary at the death of the account holder. All the POD beneficiary has to do is show a death certificate to the bank that the account was at.

In terms of the other assets (that were not held as payable on death) are going to be part of the estate of your grandfather, and are going to pass according to the rules of intestate succession. If the person who is the guardian/administrator is not doing his job in distributing these assets, the heirs of the estate should hire an attorney to compel this.

I hope that helps. Good luck to you!