It may be, spanner, that the BS your daughter works for may perhaps insist on loans being taken in joint names where there are partners or spouses co-habiting, or something like that.
This article confirms Barmaid's advice:
http://www.thisismoney.co.uk/money/experts/article-2039944/If-husband-wife-run-credit-card-bills-passes-away-spouse-liable-pay-debt-estate.html
The debt can be taken from the deceased's estate (including his share of any joint assets) but in the event that there is no estate the debt cannot be transferred to the spouse if he or she was not party to the agreement.
Many retail financial institutions do not train their staff properly on aspects of the law which may effect their dealings with customers. This is particularly so in respect of the Data Protection Act and the Money Laundering Regulations. Some institutions "gold plate" the measures to ridiculous levels ("just to be on the safe side"), telling their staff that the law requires it when it clearly does not. The staff simply repeat this mantra to their customers. I was once told in a Bureau de Change in well know High Street travel agent that I must present my passport to change a twenty pound note into Euros to give to my nephew who was going on a school trip. They would be happy to change it into two tenners, but not into twenty-odd Euros without proof of identity. I went to the Post Office next door and got my Euros without any fuss.
I would not take as gospel anything I am told by such institutions and always check for myself. But then I'm a distrusting old sod !!!