Hello,

I have a question I am hoping someone can help me with. If you have an account where signers are constantly changing (such as a non-profit or other types of entities), do you obtain a new full signature card every time there is a change? We have an electric company that has a number of signers that only needs to only need to sign checks for permits and materials - but they are numerous and change frequently. We are hoping that we can potentially move away from this practice. Does anyone use a type of master signature agreement with the main signers and then have a separate card of some type for each person? Any guidance or examples would be appreciated. Thank you!

bump?

I can only speak from the experience of having been a signer for a non-profit account and serving on their board. It operates with the officers of the board being authorized to sign checks, and each year at least one person comes off the account as their term ends, and at least one is added as their term begins. The financial institution we bank at does require the board to provide meeting minutes when these changes occur, and yes a new signature card is completed each time. It can be a cumbersome process (especially if your example account changes more frequently than each year), but the FI we use has determined that a "clean slate" signature card each time is the best way to keep it as accurate/current as possible.

We also try to obtain new cards that contain all current signers; as a person that reviews checks and looks up signature cards it can be quite a headache when there are about 50 pages in the file and you have to look at the data maintenance forms to see who was removed and who was added because the branch only had the newest signers provide signature cards. If necessary, have the main (unchanging signers) sign one card and then have the newest signers sign on a separate card - image them all together with the notation of updated mmddyy written on each card. When the intermediate signers change, reimage the permanent card with the new intermediates.

We also have accounts with "master signature cards" but they do not seem to get updated and additional signers for some reason aren't added to a card.