Explaining Joint Accounts

Through feedback from the branch field, we learned that people opening joint accounts are often unaware of the legal implications of doing so. This results in some less-than-satisfied clients who feel that someone should have informed them about the risks.

We were also handed a new legal requirement: to display a link to a government brochure discussing the differences between joint accounts and power of attorney. Apparently, the two are often confused.

The branch account-opening flow is a shared-screen experience between the client and advisor. We introduced a new screen within that flow to serve as a conversation starter and surface important details from the brochure. Our goal was to make the information easy to scan and informative enough that the clients didn’t necessarily need to leave the flow to read the brochure’s contents. But they’d also be able to make a more informed decision before opening a joint account.