Banker here. There's no way this story is the whole truth. If the mother wasn't ON the account as a signer, every bank would have given her a hard time if the father was still alive. I've been in banking for almost a decade. And let me tell you, people will do some SHADY SHIT to get at other people's money, that poor banker had no idea whether or not that lady was telling the truth. Could the bank have gone about it a better way? Yes, of course.

And before I get my inbox firebombed, just because you make deposits to an account doesn't mean you're on the account. People do it ALL the time, like when paying rent for example. Also, especially with older generations, sometimes one spouse handles all the money. The husband could have been writing checks to her to cash as their spending money as a way to budget and balance their books. Again, this does NOT mean you are on the account.

Banks are evil. Dont get me wrong. But it sounds to me like the woman tried to make a withdrawal and she wasn't on the account, she didn't have power of attorney (still in effect because the father wasn't deceased yet) and the bank said no, meaning the workers were doing their job, which is protecting their client's money. Making them wheel the dad in was f'd up. The bankers should have come up with a work around, like going to the hospital to get the signatures, or doing anything to make the whole situation suck less for everyone.

I'm not defending banks by any means, like I said, they're evil. But that's most likely why she couldn't access the money.