If your great aunt violated the terms of the will, then no, this is NOT legal. The will determines who will receive what: no family member, and not even the executor, can change what the will says in terms of distributing the assets...and that brings up another issue: unless your grand aunt was named as the executor in the will (or otherwise appointed to handle the estate by a court), she had no authority over your grandmother's estate. Only the executor named in the will or some other person appointed by the court has that authority. From what you write, your aunt may well have acted illegally; to challenge her actions, you'll need to be bring a legal action in probate (also called chancery or surrogates) court. You should speak with an attorney about the situation and brining a case, unless the amount of money at stake is so little as to not justify hiring a lawyer, in which case you may be best off letting things go.