Does anyone have a "remove owner" form that your bank uses when a customer wishes to remove themselves as a joint owner on a deposit account? We almost always require the account to be closed and a new account opened, but there are rare occasions when we want use such a form in lieu of that.

If you'd be willing to email me your form, please reply in the thread and I will PM you my email address. Thanks in advance for your help.

Also, if someone feels strongly that this would be a terrible idea, I'd really appreciate your thoughts!

It's a terrible idea.

Legally, it works. A joint account with 2 individuals is a 3 party contract; acting in concert all 3 parties can change that contract and let one person walk away. When banks inspected every check before payment they would find an item drawn by someone who was no longer an owner and send it back "unauthorized signature."

Now, we don't look at checks, we simply pay them if the MICR line is valid. The parties to the "friendly divorce" agreed that he could keep the account and she would be removed. Papers were signed. Maybe the paper even says the parties agree to hold the bank harmless for any errors in future payments!

Now, the divorce isn't friendly anymore. He's about $1800 behind in his child support. She's finds a blank check in her purse. Writes it for $1800 payable to herself and signs her name. Your bank is going to pay it.

He's going to be standing on your desk talking about your parents and wants the money back in the account now. That "hold harmless" thing? His attorney is going to say that he had no way of assessing the risks, but your bank knew exactly what the risks were and took advantage of him.

She did not commit forgery. He does owe her the money. If it's later than midnight of the banking day following the banking day of presentment, it's too late to send the check back. If your position is not clear, you are standing between the dog and the tree.

Close account A. Open account B. What was okay once is not okay now.

Thanks for the invitation to chime in; I started to do it a few minutes ago, but know that people don't really want a lecture when all they asked for was some help. Usually, however, I can't resist.

Ken, thanks so much!

I'm with Ken- Removing living owners is never a good idea- there's too much that can go (and has gone) wrong with such a practice.

The only "remove owner" form that we accept is a death certificate.

We really really need a "like" button for posts like Ken's. Not just factually informative, but descriptive and entertaining too.

I agree with Ken wholeheartedly. We had a "former" joint owner of an account in our lobby screaming and yelling today because she wanted access to information about the account and the money, and we told her no, we cannot.

Years ago and 4 or 5 management teams ago, it was permitted to remove owners from an account by request of any one of the owners. We put an end to the practice, but older accounts where it was done tend to come back to haunt us.

Do yourself a favor and never, never do this.

Or a LOL button. Thanks for the chuckle, Ken! LUV the dog/tree analogy.