i honestly don't know what our exact policy is on this, but i have obseved branches simply stapling a copy of the death certificate to the signature card. maybe attach a note on the account that the wife has died. at my old bank, we would put a flag on the account that a signer had died and then give the customer x amount of days to close the account and open a new one, which would solve the sig card issue.
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Dabbling in banking, law, accounting...the life of a trustee.