Because the wife is not an authorized signer on the corporate accounts, the bank should not allow her to transact any business with the accounts. Once the ownership of the businesses passes to the new owner or owners, the bank should follow its policies and procedures to establish that the businesses have named the wife as an authorized signer for the accounts. This will require the bank to confirm the identity of the new business owners and officers, to confirm that they have the power to name a new authorized signer for the accounts. The bank may also have to follow its customer identification program policy and the customer identification program rules, if the bank’s policies or procedures require it to verify the identity of individuals with authority and control over the businesses.

There are a number of possibilities as to who will succeed to the businesses (and how). The ownership of the businesses could pass to the wife, or to anyone else, through the probate of the husband’s estate (governed either by the husband’s will, or if he had no will, by operation of law), through a successor trustee provision in a trust document, or even through a more informal small estate affidavit. Shares of ownership in the businesses may be restricted by voting trusts, buy-sell agreements, restrictive stock transfer agreements, and other contractual obligations and tax considerations. The bank should wait either for a court order or other documentation naming a representative of the husband’s estate or for documentation of the new business owners.