Whether a situation for a stockbroker at an independent or regional firm or at Bank of America, Wells Fargo, JP Morgan, Morgan Stanley, RBC, UBS, or wherever, as long as human being have brokerage accounts, death and estate issues will exist.
Woch had something akin to oral authorization to enter sell orders conditioned upon FDA approval, but those orders constituted a grant to the stockbrokerof discretion, which needed to be in writing and approved by his firm (which was not what transpired).