While you will likely be able to enforce any existing agreements against the customer, we believe it would be a best practice to require the customer to sign new signature cards and any other agreements that she signed individually (including signature cards, safety deposit box agreements, loan agreements, individual guarantor agreements, and security agreements such as financing statements and mortgages). It is particularly important to update signature cards, which help banks to defend against forgery claims. Further, any loans with the customer as an individual that are secured by “blanket” financing statements (UCC-1s) will have to be amended within four months. 810 ILCS 5/9-507(c). We also recommend obtaining new authorizations from any business accounts on which the customer was an authorized signer reflecting her new name, including corporate resolutions using the customer’s new name. 

The bank may also want to take additional steps to verify the customer’s new name through documentation (such as a driver’s license). Many banks also ask for the legal document that changed the customer’s name, such as a marriage license, divorce decree, or court order, in addition to the customer’s new driver’s license. (Note that Illinois recently abolished “common law” name changes by affidavit and now requires that all name changes be made “pursuant to marriage or other legal proceedings.” 725 ILCS 5/21-105.) Obtaining verifying documents for the name change will also ensure that the bank is reporting interest and other information to the IRS using the customer’s correct name.