Certificate of Deposit - joint owners

If you are opening a certificate of deposit for joint owners and one is not present (but is an existing customer) do both have to sign the certificate since they may not be present at the time of account opening?

I believe all that is required is that a signed W-9 be on file for each owner. Actual signatures on the document are not, however best practices would say to obtain them if possible.

Unless you have some sort of master account signature card, how do you enter into a contract with multiple people and not have each of them sign the contract?

Also, there is no requirement to have a signed W-9 from each owner, it is only rquired from the owner under which the interest will be reported.

I have seen "signature on file" so many times through the years and it still surprises me. Somewhere we have failed to help branch personnel understand that each new CD is a new contract with the customer. You can't rely on prior, terminated contracts for signatures. The same customer that raises the roof because you want his poor, crippled wife to come in to the bank to sign "that silly form" is the same customer that will sue the bank for putting his name on an account without his signature.