We recommend that you require the daughter to obtain a court order appointing her as guardian for one or both of her parents before adding her as a joint accountholder or authorized signer on the account. A temporary guardianship can be obtained relatively quickly, particularly if there are emergency circumstances that require the daughter to take control of the account funds quickly.

There are heightened risks for your bank if you add the daughter to the account in the absence of a guardianship order, particularly because the daughter already has informed you that one parent is “mentally incompetent” and the other parent is “close to being considered incompetent.”  Ultimately, however, whether you proceed with the daughter’s request without a guardianship order is a business decision for your bank to make based upon its risk appetite.