Opinion ID: 617013
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Overly's Use of Scanned Signatures

Text: Overly became a financial advisor with the McDonald Financial Group in 2004. A couple years later, she accepted a similar position with KeyBank, providing financial advice to clients at several of its Central Indiana branches. Initially, Overly's direct supervisor was Andrew Moulton, the regional sales manager for KeyBank's Central Indiana territories. Moulton resigned in January 2007. Rick Bielecki became Overly's new regional sales manager in March 2007. Even though he was her direct supervisor, Bielecki usually only interacted or met with Overly once a month because of his supervisory responsibilities for multiple territories. Upon becoming regional sales manager, Bielecki would ride-along with financial advisors under his supervision in the Central Indiana branches to observe how they conducted business. During a ride-along with Overly on April 12, 2007, Overly explained the procedures used in opening new client accounts. One procedure that came to light was Overly's reliance on her scanned, as opposed to in-person, signatures in executing account documents. Overly explained that Bielecki's predecessor Moulton had suggested that her assistant, Carol Cooney, paste Overly's scanned signature on client documents to speed up the opening of accounts on those occasions when Overly could not be at the specific branch immediately to sign the document. Overly had apparently used this procedure approximately twenty times over the previous year and was the only financial advisor to do so. Overly also encouraged bankers to sell investment products outside KeyBank's product menu without Overly being there to supervise.