USAA is great! Can't say enough good things about them. When I first joined it was only for Officers and my retired enlisted dad could not join. I can't remember when but they slowly started opening up membership to enlisted services. I was finally able to get my dad joined and he has auto, checking, savings and renters insurance with them. I pay all his bills for free using their webpay service.
I think the issue here is you dad was deceased before becoming a member. But as far as I know, that's only for some products like the Auto Insurance. I believe they opened up their Banking (credit card/checking, savings) and Investment services to the public so anyone can use those.
Don't know if its the same for checking account holders that aren't full members but one of the best things about the checking account is I can use my debit card at any ATM and they return the $3 fee or whatever it is to me so it costs me nothing.
I've been a member a looooooooog time. Lots of vehicle claims. Here lately they rely on their phone app/web site to process claims which is probably still pretty quick compared to other companies but in the "old" days before smartphones and the app you almost had to slow them down processing your claim.
Here's how my typical experience with them went back then. I call them up to make a claim. They take my information. They contracted with local area adjusters and they would call you back right away and schedule a time to come meet you for estimate of the damage. Sometimes it was like the very next day (never more than a few days). When the adjuster meets you at your work or home to check out the damage, they would give you a check on the spot to have it fixed! They also have relationships with body shops and if you take your vehicle to one of these body shops they recommend the repair is lifetime guaranteed!
So when I joined it was like the best kept secret in the world ... now it's opened up to almost everyone and they still maintain excellent service but rely a bit on technology to handle the load and that annoys me as I was used to getting a human on the phone but hey, it's no where near as bad as calling someone like Social Security or Medicare and being on hold for an hour and when they finally do answer they pass you around until they hang up on you!
And another good thing is I've been able to pass membership on to my wife and daughters who are all members with checking, savings, auto insurance etc.