Hello,

I have a couple questions regarding POA's in WI.

1. What responsibilities does the bank have to find out when a customer dies and a POA is no longer active? Should we wait until we actually have a death certificate or is knowledge enough?

2.Should we do a new signature card when a current customer brings in POA papers?

3.What if the POA agent is on chex systems but the customer is not?

Thanks for your help!

1. You can't unknow what you know. In other words, regardless of you having a copy of the Death Certificate, the POA is no longer valid if the customer is deceased. Your policy and procedure may require a copy of the Death Cert to do anything further with the account, but I would not let a POA agent transact on the account if I know that the customer is deceased. Also, the statute states that actual knowledge of termination of the power (i.e. event of death) is grounds for refusing to honor the POA.

2. We do new signature cards when adding anyone to an account. Check with your policies and procedures, but I don't see why you wouldn't.

3. I would think this one is a matter of your bank's policy as well. If the POA agent is not a person you would establish a relationship with, then you can decline to do so even in a POA situation.

I appreciate your input! I am the one writing the procedures - so I needed some confirmation of my own thoughts!