AboutJim Meadows Expertise I can respond to most questions concerning consumer and business relationships with US financial institutions. My expertise touches on deposit and loan issues and particularly on strategies to navigate through bank policies personell and practices. I have a degree in Economics, attended law school, Graduate Shool of Banking, and Commercial Lending and Compliance Schools.
Experience I have twenty years experience as a bank CEO. Most of those years were spent operating a bank focused primarly on serving consumer/retail needs. I helped pioneer deposit and loan products for low/moderate income individuals. I currently serve on multiple bank boards and am Chairman of a Commercial Bank in Atlanta.
Question I am an employee (technically a contractor) for a business owner who owns five business. I specifically work for one of those five. All of the owners accounts are at one bank and all linked. The business account resigned a few months back and she was the sole signer for the accounts (she signed all checks and approved transfers, etc). The owner said he could not have his own name on the business accounts as a signer, so he asked me to be the signer. I agreed knowing very little about business accounting. I am wondering if anything legal (say a lawsuit) against the owner, am I responsible for anything monetary going on with the accounts? I actually don't literally do any of the signing, the secretary stamps all checks with my signature stamp that was approved by the bank. I ask this because my sister has scared the crap out of me, saying that anything the owner (legal or illegal) with the accounts I am responsible for. I'd like to know if that is true or not.
Thanks.
Answer Aly, Saying that "anything illegal that the owner does makes you responsible" is maybe overstated. However, your sister is on the right track, there are risks. There will be a presumption whether from a third party or perhaps from your employer that anything you signed that you approved.
For example, the secretary uses your signature stamp to write herself a check to finance a shopping spree to Paris. The finger might point at you.
Maybe a political way to handle this problem would be to propose a reasonable set of financial controls for the management of the accounts. There should be a written policy as to check signing authority, authorizing payments, dollar limits,etc. This would be to everyones advantage, especially the owner. You could work with the company's accountant or even go to the web for guidance. For example: www.polociesandprocedures.com has a template for a check signing policy for $19.95 which will download as a Word file. Jim
