The checking acct with my Mom reads her name and my name only. Should I leave it or change it?

The only change you can make to a joint account is to remove your own name. You can't change anything on an account that you aren't on. If there are beneficiary designations, only the account owner can change those--not even the POA or Executor or Trustee can change a beneficiary designation (same goes for TOD, POD designation). Also those bene, TOD, and POD accounts are completely outside and separate from the "estate". So the Will might read "I give my estate in equal shares to my 3 children" but if there is a $10, 000 life ins policy with bene listed as one of the kids--it goes soley to that kid, and that kid doesn't get less of the estate as described in the Will. I'm not a lawyer, but have had numerous discussion with my parent's lawyer, and my own, and I'm my parents' POA, Executor & Trustee. There are some POD and life ins accounts that my folks have designated differently than the way the will splits the rest of Estate. In fact, the Estate probably will take 2-3 years to completely be settled, before any disbursements can be made to the 5 kids plus 1 church. However, the Life Ins can be paid to Beneficiary as soon as the Death Certificate(s) are provided (and the ins co's own paperwork is approved). The POD account (s) are likewise payable to the listed person, upon their presenting the Death Certificate. The Executor usually gets a few dozen copies of Death Cert, and might be helpful and provide these to the beneficiary/POD designees, but the designees don't have to depend on the Executor to do so, they can also make an application to the County or State where the death occurred, as an interested party (I.e. you need the DC in order to receive the account). Hope this info is helpful--as usual, check things out with your mom first of all, to see exactly what she wants, and if there are questions on how to accomplish her desires, be sure to take her to her lawyer, bank, ins co, and have her do most of the talking. If she is not able to make her wishes known, then no changes can be made to her accounts (except for you to take your name off an account).

You need to talk to the bank and look at the account application and see if the checking account is JTWROS or JTIC or some other status.
If she owns the CD that is ITF you can't do anything with that. It's not yours until she dies.