Remote Online Notarization Is Not Just for Real Estate Closings
Remote online notarization is commonly associated with real estate closings. However, its usefulness extends far beyond purchasing, selling or refinancing a home.
Attorneys, businesses, financial professionals and individuals frequently encounter documents that require a notarized signature. When the signer is traveling, lives in another state, works unusual hours, has limited transportation or cannot conveniently visit an attorney’s office, remote online notarization may provide a practical alternative.
With remote online notarization, commonly called RON, the signer and notary meet through a secure audio-video platform rather than in the same physical location. The signer completes an identity-verification process, appears before the notary through live video and electronically signs the document. The online notary then completes the required notarial certificate and applies an electronic signature and seal.
The completed electronic document can generally be returned promptly after the appointment, eliminating the need to print, mail or overnight documents simply to obtain a notarized signature.
When Can Remote Online Notarization Be Helpful?
Consider these common situations:
- A business transaction is ready, but the company officer is traveling.
- An attorney needs a sworn affidavit from a client or witness who lives in another state.
- A trustee or beneficiary cannot conveniently visit the law office.
- Several people involved in a transaction are located in different cities.
- A guarantor is unavailable during regular business hours.
- A correcting affidavit or ratification is needed quickly.
- A client is homebound or lacks reliable transportation.
- A signer is temporarily outside the United States.
- An approaching deadline does not allow time for documents to be mailed back and forth.
Remote online notarization will not be appropriate for every document or situation. However, when electronic signatures and online notarization are permitted and the receiving party accepts the completed electronic document, RON can remove the logistical challenge of bringing the document, signer and notary together in one physical location.
Corporate and Business Transactions
Corporate and business transactions often involve officers, directors, members, managers, partners, investors and guarantors who are located in different places. One unavailable signer can delay an otherwise completed transaction.
Depending on the document and the requirements of the parties involved, remote online notarization may be useful for:
- Corporate resolutions and written consents
- Secretary’s certificates
- Certificates of incumbency
- Officer certificates
- Member and manager consents
- Partnership authorizations
- Affidavits confirming signing authority
- Borrowing resolutions
- Personal and corporate guaranties
- Bills of sale
- Asset-purchase documents
- Contract assignments
- Stock or membership-interest transfers
- Intellectual-property assignments
- Security and pledge agreements
- Subordination agreements
- Indemnity agreements
- Settlement agreements and releases
- Lien waivers and releases
- Sworn compliance statements
- Non-collusion affidavits
- Documents supporting mergers, acquisitions, conversions or dissolutions
- Ratifications of previous corporate actions
Not every business document requires notarization. The attorney preparing the transaction should determine whether a notarial act is required and which type of notarial certificate is appropriate.
When notarization is necessary, RON may allow an authorized company representative to complete the document without delaying the transaction until everyone can meet in person.
Affidavits, Litigation and Legal Proceedings
Attorneys regularly work with clients, witnesses and record custodians who cannot easily travel to the law office. Remote online notarization may be useful when an affidavit or sworn statement must be signed before a notary.
Potential documents include:
- Sworn witness affidavits
- Affidavits supporting motions
- Discovery verifications
- Custodian-of-records affidavits
- Business-records affidavits
- Affidavits authenticating documents
- Affidavits of service
- Affidavits of publication
- Lost-instrument affidavits
- Identity and name affidavits
- Settlement affidavits
- Sworn proofs of loss
- Affidavits supporting judgment collection
- Affidavits used in arbitration matters
- Releases and settlement agreements requiring acknowledgment
Court procedures vary. Some courts accept an unsworn declaration under penalty of perjury instead of a notarized affidavit, while others may require a particular signature, verification or filing process.
Before arranging the notarization, the attorney should confirm the requirements of the applicable court, tribunal or clerk’s office.
Estate Planning, Trust and Probate Matters
Remote online notarization may also help attorneys serve estate-planning and probate clients who are traveling, living outside the area, homebound or unable to visit the office.
Documents that may require or benefit from notarization include:
- General powers of attorney
- Durable financial powers of attorney
- Limited or special powers of attorney
- Revocable or irrevocable trust agreements
- Trust amendments and restatements
- Certifications or abstracts of trust
- Trustee acceptances and resignations
- Appointments of successor trustees
- Assignments of property to a trust
- Deeds transferring property into or out of a trust
- Beneficiary affidavits
- Small-estate affidavits
- Affidavits of heirship
- Executor or administrator affidavits
- Probate waivers and consents
- Receipts and releases
- Family settlement agreements
- Lost-will affidavits
- Witness affidavits
- Selected health-care powers of attorney and advance directives
Estate-planning documents deserve special attention because many have specific signing and witness requirements.
A will, codicil, self-proving affidavit, health-care directive or similar document may require witnesses in addition to a notary. The ability to meet with a notary remotely does not automatically mean the complete document can be legally executed online.
The estate-planning attorney should establish the signing procedure and confirm the requirements for the testator, witnesses and notary before scheduling the appointment.
Banking, Lending and Financial Transactions
Remote online notarization may help lenders, private investors, financial professionals and their attorneys complete time-sensitive documents without requiring every participant to visit the same office.
Potential uses include:
- Commercial loan documents
- Private-lending agreements
- Personal and corporate guaranties
- Borrowing resolutions
- Security agreements
- Pledge agreements
- Collateral assignments
- Assignments of leases and rents
- Loan modifications
- Loan extensions and renewals
- Forbearance agreements
- Subordination and intercreditor agreements
- Payoff and release documents
- Lost-note affidavits
- Trust certifications
- Officer and authority certificates
- Equipment-financing documents
- Identity and name affidavits
Certain financial instruments may require a paper original, and possession of the original document can sometimes affect legal rights. Before using RON, the attorney, lender or receiving institution should confirm that an electronic document will be accepted.
Real Estate and Property Documents
Real estate remains one of the most familiar uses for remote online notarization.
When the title company, lender, county recorder and other parties accept the electronic document, RON may be useful for:
- Purchase and refinance closing packages
- Seller closing packages
- Deeds
- Mortgages and deeds of trust
- Assignments of mortgages or deeds of trust
- Releases and satisfactions
- Title affidavits
- Owner’s affidavits
- Identity and name affidavits
- Marital-status affidavits
- Affidavits of heirship
- Corrective or scrivener’s affidavits
- Easement agreements
- Boundary-line agreements
- Restrictive covenants
- Assignments of leases and rents
- Commercial lease guaranties
- Construction-loan documents
- Mechanic’s-lien affidavits
- Lien waivers and releases
- Occupancy affidavits
- Homestead affidavits
- Powers of attorney for a particular real estate transaction
- Post-closing correction documents
A particularly valuable application is the out-of-state or international seller who cannot attend a traditional closing. When the transaction and receiving parties permit RON, the seller may be able to complete the notarized documents without traveling to the United States or waiting for an appointment at a U.S. embassy or consulate.
Insurance and Settlement Documents
Insurance matters frequently involve sworn statements, releases and claim documents.
Depending on the insurance carrier’s requirements, RON may be useful for:
- Sworn proofs of loss
- Claimant affidavits
- Theft or damage affidavits
- Life-insurance claim affidavits
- Beneficiary affidavits
- Identity affidavits
- Survivorship affidavits
- Subrogation documents
- Settlement releases
- Total-loss vehicle powers of attorney
- Business-interruption affidavits
- Surety-bond claim affidavits
Before the appointment, the insurer or attorney should confirm that the carrier will accept the electronically signed and notarized document.
Family Law Documents
Some family-law matters may also involve notarized signatures.
Potential documents include:
- Marital settlement agreements
- Separation agreements
- Prenuptial and postnuptial agreements
- Financial affidavits
- Parenting-plan verifications
- Custody-related consents
- Relocation consents
- Travel-consent affidavits
- Acknowledgments or waivers of service
- Name-change affidavits
- Pension-related forms
- Settlement releases
- Adoption or parentage documents when remote execution is specifically permitted
Documents involving adoption, children, parentage or surrogacy may have special waiting periods, witness requirements, counseling requirements or prescribed signing procedures. These matters should be handled under the direction of the attorney preparing the document.
Intellectual Property and Technology Transactions
Attorneys working with inventors, businesses, technology companies, media professionals and creators may also encounter documents that require acknowledgment or a sworn signature.
Examples include:
- Patent assignments
- Trademark assignments
- Copyright assignments
- Confirmatory assignments
- Inventor affidavits
- Intellectual-property security agreements
- Software and technology asset transfers
- Domain-name ownership affidavits
- Rights-of-publicity releases
- Entertainment chain-of-title affidavits
- Royalty-interest assignments
- Identity and authority affidavits
RON can be especially helpful when inventors, creators or company representatives are working from different states or countries.
Immigration and International Documents
Remote online notarization may be useful for certain documents connected to immigration or international matters, including:
- Affidavits concerning birth, marriage or family relationships
- Residence and identity affidavits
- Translator affidavits
- Parental-consent documents
- Invitation or sponsorship affidavits
- Powers of attorney intended for use in the United States
- Corporate immigration-support affidavits
- Affidavits explaining differences in names or personal information
However, many federal immigration forms do not require notarization. A document should not be notarized merely to make it appear more official.
Documents intended for use by a foreign government, embassy or consulate require additional review. The destination may require a wet-ink original, an apostille, authentication, legalization or execution before a consular official.
Before completing an international document through RON, the signer or attorney should confirm that the receiving authority will accept the electronically signed and notarized document.
Employment and Human Resources Documents
Businesses and employment attorneys may encounter notarized documents involving employees, contractors or company investigations.
Potential uses include:
- Employment-related affidavits
- Sworn internal-investigation statements
- Intellectual-property and invention assignments
- Settlement and severance documents
- Wage-claim affidavits
- Professional-licensing affidavits
- Retirement or pension affidavits
- Identity and name affidavits
- Restrictive-covenant acknowledgments when requested
Form I-9 should not automatically be treated as a notarization. A person acting as an employer’s authorized representative for Form I-9 is performing a different function from a notary completing a notarial act.
Government, Licensing and Regulatory Documents
Remote online notarization may also be an option for documents submitted to government agencies, professional boards and licensing authorities.
Examples may include:
- Professional-license affidavits
- Contractor-license documents
- Regulatory disclosures
- Public-bid affidavits
- Vendor certifications
- Non-collusion affidavits
- Environmental-compliance affidavits
- Transportation or alcohol-license affidavits
- Ethics disclosures
- Sworn state or local government applications
Each government agency establishes its own submission rules. Some agencies accept electronically notarized documents, while others require a scanned wet signature or original paper submission.
What Should Be Confirmed Before Scheduling RON?
Before arranging a remote online notarization, the attorney, document preparer or receiving party should confirm:
- Does the document actually require notarization?
- What type of notarial act is required?
- Are electronic signatures permitted for this document?
- Are witnesses required in addition to the notary?
- Does the receiving party accept remote online notarization?
- Will the document be recorded or filed with a court or government agency?
- Is a paper original required?
- Will the document be used in another state or country?
- Does the document contain the appropriate notarial certificate?
- Is the signer able to complete the platform’s identity-verification requirements?
The online notary verifies identity, witnesses or acknowledges the signature as directed, administers an oath when required and completes the notarial certificate. The notary does not determine which documents a client needs, choose the required certificate for the transaction or provide legal advice.
A Convenient Option for Attorneys and Their Clients
Remote online notarization cannot solve every document-execution problem, but it can eliminate many unnecessary scheduling and location barriers.
When the document is eligible and the receiving party accepts RON, the signer may be able to complete the notarization without driving to an office, locating an unfamiliar notary or mailing documents across the country.
That can mean:
- More convenient scheduling
- Faster return of completed documents
- Less dependence on overnight delivery
- Easier service for traveling or out-of-state clients
- A consistent identity-verification process
- Fewer delays caused solely by location
When your transaction is ready but your signer is not nearby, call Notary Force. We provide experienced, dependable remote online notarization to help attorneys, businesses and their clients keep important matters moving. Call 615-616-NTRY(6879)
Remote online notarization is subject to applicable law, document requirements and acceptance by the receiving party. This information is educational and is not intended as legal advice.