[hsmomx3]

Really, I was always told I can sign my spouse's name.

[NonValueAdded]

Really, I was always told I can sign my spouse's name.

And who told you that? Think about it the other way around ... your husband signs your name, blows the money, and you sue the bank and the insurance company for giving away your money based on a fradulent signature. I assume from it being an insurance check that it was a large amount, large enough for the bank to pull the signature card. You really don't have much to stand on here. At a minimum you should have signed with your own name to be above-board on what you were doing.

[Gay State Conservative]

Really, I was always told I can sign my spouse's name.

I'm no lawyer,but unless you've been granted Power of Attorney by your husband I'll wager that that's not true. Of course,the reverse would also be true.

[Mad Dawg]

The people who say that are trusting that you and he are on the same page and there's no intent to defraud. So they're saying, basically, they'll overlook the forgery because there's no criminal intent.

But they are still perfectly correct (though also a pain in the butt) in that you signed somebody else's name to a check not made out to you, and there's no official legal authority for you to do so.

Suppose that you had just decided to leave your husband and initiate divorce proceedings. He comes home and discovers that the bank let you take a check made out to him and use it for your own benefit. It could get ugly, and it's tha banks business to avoid that kind of ugliness or even the possibility of it.

[LachlanMinnesota]

Marriage does not give you the right to sign your spouse's checks. You must be authorized to do so in one of several ways. The two most common for negotiating a check is to have a power of attorney created by your spouse and naming you as the attorney-in-fact. Your state law governs how this is done, but it is a very basic and simple document. The other way is for your souse to sign an authorization at the bank for your spouse.

Why is this necessary?

Because sometimes, especially in divorce cases, the arrival of a large check triggers the divorce, because one spouse takes the check and does what you did. They then withdraw all of the money and use it to pay the lawyer for the divorce. That is just one scenario.

The fact that your married can make you even more suspect in some ways, because of this.