Authorized signer

What it means

An authorized signer can deposit, withdraw, transfer and pay bills on an account that remains entirely the account holder's. They own none of the money and inherit none of it.

It is not the same thing as being a joint owner, although a bank may offer both in the same conversation and use overlapping words for them. The distinguishing question is not what it is called but whether it changes who owns the money.

The permission ends when the account holder dies. What happens to the balance at that point is decided by the account's own titling and by any beneficiary designation, not by who was allowed to sign.

On a credit card the equivalent arrangement is usually called an authorized user, and it is narrower still: it permits the card to be used and nothing else.

Why it matters

It is the arrangement that does the job most families actually want — paying a parent's bills — without the consequences that make joint ownership hard to reverse.

Because it ends at death, a family that arranged only this and believed it covered everything discovers the gap at the worst moment. It is the complement to a beneficiary designation, not a substitute for it.

When you are likely to meet it

• When a bank offers to 'put you on the account'.
• When you are trying to pay a parent's bills and do not want to own their money.
• When an account holder has died and you are working out what your existing permission still allows.

How this varies by state

What an institution offers short of joint ownership, and what it calls it, differs by bank and by product. Some states have created their own statutory version of the same idea with rules of its own.

Related terms

• CapacityWhether somebody is able to understand a decision and its consequences well enough to make it. It is decided decision by decision, not once and for all.
• Durable power of attorneyA power of attorney that keeps working after the person who signed it loses the ability to make decisions — which is usually the whole point of signing one.
• Fiduciary dutyThe obligation to act for somebody else's benefit rather than your own — and to be able to show you did.
• Financial exploitationTaking or misusing an older or vulnerable person's money or property. It is usually done by somebody they know.
• Joint tenancy with right of survivorshipA way two or more people own something together where, when one dies, the others simply own it — with no probate.
• Power of attorneyA document letting somebody act for you while you are alive — and which stops working the moment you die.
• Representative payeeSomebody appointed by Social Security to receive and manage benefits for a person who cannot manage them.
• Right of survivorshipA form of shared ownership where the survivor automatically takes the whole thing.
• Trusted contact personSomebody named on a financial account whom the firm may contact if it is worried — about the account holder's health, or about a transaction.

Sahvelo guidance that uses this

• Adding your name to a parent's account
• Bank accounts after a death