Notaries must always follow state laws, regulations and official guidelines when performing notarial acts, including in-person electronic notarizations (IPEN). But these official rules cannot anticipate every possible circumstance Notaries face. This is why there are recommended standards of professional practice for Notaries, like those found in The Notary Public Code of Professional Responsibility.
In addition to following Notary professional practice standards, electronic Notaries should also follow generally accepted business practices. These practices are rarely addressed in the law, but they are critically important for providing the best possible customer experience for the clients of your Notary services.
We will discuss several electronic Notary standards for performing IPEN and business practices you will want to consider implementing.
IPEN standards of professional practice
Use an IPEN platform that allows handwritten signatures
Many, if not most, IPEN systems use what we call “click to sign” signatures—that is, a signer or Notary clicks or taps a button with a mouse or their finger to sign. The resulting signature is the name of the signer that appears in text only and perhaps a cursive font to make it look more like a signature.
While performing an IPEN on a platform that uses click-to-sign signatures is perfectly legal, the better practice is to use a platform that requires signers and Notaries to write their handwritten signature with a stylus or pen on a tablet or a signature pad connected to a laptop. There are at least three reasons why you should use an IPEN platform that requires a person to write out their handwritten signature.
- Most people are used to signing their names with their “John Hancock” and want to use that when signing an important document.
- Using technology may make some people anxious, but the experience of signing one’s name on a tablet with the same method as signing a paper document helps remove this unease and make using the technology more comfortable.
- The pressure and movements with which one makes a handwritten signature (called signature dynamics) are captured when one signs their name on a tablet or signature pad. This data can be forensically examined later if there is a question of the identity of the person who made the signature. You can’t do that with a click-to-sign signature.
Ensure your electronic seal matches your physical Notary seal
Many states require an electronic Notary seal to have the same appearance as a traditional Notary seal, but many others only require the information contained in a Notary seal to appear on the electronic document in text-only format. Signers will appreciate seeing the appearance of an electronic seal on their electronic document that contains a border and includes any graphics, such as a state seal, that appear on a physical Notary seal. An electronic seal that looks like a traditional Notary seal will reassure those signers who may be apprehensive about using IPEN in the first place.
If you are commissioned in a state that does not require an electronic Notary seal, we still highly recommend using one. You’ll need to have a seal vendor, such as the NNA, create your electronic Notary seal for you. Typically, the electronic seal is created in a .PNG or .JPG file that can be uploaded into an IPEN platform that accepts seal images provided by the Notary.
Validate your digital certificate each time
A Notary uses a digital certificate to create an electronic signature and make an electronically notarized document tamper evident.
You would never use a physical Notary seal with an expired commission date on it. Similarly, you never want to use a digital certificate that is not valid because it could result in relying parties rejecting the document or a court invalidating the notarial act.
Checking the expiration date of a digital certificate is not as easy as looking at the commission expiration date on your Notary seal. That’s because it’s not possible to obtain a digital certificate that expires on the same date as your Notary commission. Digital certificates are typically issued for one to three years, but a Notary commission in most U.S. jurisdictions is at least four years. Three years is the longest most certification authorities will allow a digital certificate holder to use a digital certificate without re-verifying their identity for a new certificate.
Verifying the validity of your digital certificate will involve some work. How can you find your digital certificate’s expiration date? One way is by accessing your account on the certification authority’s website. Your account should show your digital certificate and its issuance and expiration dates.
Another way is the IPEN platform you use may notify you when the digital certificate has expired or provide tools for reading the information, including the expiration date, on it.
Once you know the exact expiration date, write it down in a place that will help you remember it, such as in the front of your journal.
Never keep copies of notarized electronic documents
In the paper world, Notaries do not keep copies of the documents they notarize. In the electronic world, they shouldn’t either. Electronic documents may contain a signer’s personal information that you should never store on your computer or anywhere else.
In most cases, the documents that you notarize with IPEN will not be stored on your computer, but there could be circumstances in which a signer sends you the document in advance of the notarization. Make sure to permanently delete the file from your computer if you temporarily store it there. Also, if applicable, delete any email and email attachment containing the document when the IPEN has been completed.
Secure your electronic journal entries
Just as physical Notary journals should be locked up in a safe place when they are not in use, electronic journals should be secured as well.
Fortunately, access to dedicated electronic journal apps and electronic journals that are part of an IPEN platform do this for you.
Your account with an electronic journal app or IPEN platform requires access with your username and password. Provided this password is sufficiently strong and you do not share your login credentials with anyone, this should keep your journal entries secure.
Make sure to follow best practices for creating a secure password. One good practice is to create a passphrase like “my dog is named Nova” and then replacing some of the letters with numbers, uppercase letters and special characters (for example, MiDog1$NamedNov@). This will not only create a strong password. It will help you remember it as well.
IPEN business practices
Practicing professional IPEN standards will ensure that any electronic notarization you perform will be legal, trustworthy and secure. But this only gets you halfway home. There are several general business practices that you should adopt and practice as well. These business practices go beyond the standards of care an electronic Notary should follow when performing a notarial act.
Confirm acceptance of the electronic documents
Just because IPENs may be legal in your state doesn’t automatically mean they will be accepted. For example, it may be legal in your state to perform an IPEN on a real property document, but if a county or town recorder is not equipped to accept electronic real property documents, all the effort to perform an IPEN will be for nothing.
Before you perform an IPEN for a customer, be sure to ask if the agency receiving the document can accept it. You should ask the customer to confirm this because it is not your responsibility to know whether the agency will or will not accept it. This will save you from performing the notarization twice—first with IPEN and then on paper with a pen and physical Notary seal.
Walk customers through the IPEN process
Signers will not know what to do when you sit down to perform an IPEN for them. Most will never have used an IPEN platform to sign a document, so they won’t know what to expect. You can help make the signing experience great if you walk them through the process before you begin.
Tell them what they need to know to view and sign the document using the IPEN system you are using. If they make a mistake, show them how to correct it. Some systems even allow a Notary to view the document on a laptop or another mobile device and navigate pages for the signer who is using a different device at the same time to view and sign the document.
Use a VPN
Many IPEN platforms require an Internet connection to view and sign documents. If you use a system like this, it is important to provide a secure connection to protect all personal information that may be exposed through the connection.
You need to use a VPN, which stands for “virtual private network.” While using any wired or Wi-Fi network, the VPN creates a private connection that shields the data from your notarial transaction from prying eyes, hackers and anyone who is not authorized to view it. There are many providers of VPN services. They are well worth the investment. A Google search will return the names of providers you can check out.
Never use public Wi-Fi offered at coffee shops or other public places to connect your IPEN platform to sign electronic documents unless you have a VPN.
Another option is to use an IPEN platform that has an offline mode that allows you to disconnect from the Internet if the connection is spotty or there are concerns about using a particular network connection. You can sign and notarize the documents in offline mode and then transmit the signed documents to where they need to go later when you reconnect to a secure network using your VPN.
Clean your device before each use
If the COVID-19 pandemic taught us anything, it is to respect the health of others. Apply that lesson as an IPEN business practice and clean the computer or mobile device you use to perform IPENs before each use.
Most laptops and tablets are personal computing devices. That is, a single person uses them. We may not think about cleaning our personal devices if we are usually the only ones who use them. It is altogether different when you must share your mobile device with a signer or have someone type on your laptop keyboard—normal everyday events when you perform an IPEN.
So, clean your device. Better yet, clean it in the presence of your customers. A word of caution though: Make sure to follow any cleaning instructions provided by the manufacturer of your device. For example, double-check to ensure it is safe to use a disinfecting wipe (e.g., Clorox wipe) on your laptop or mobile device. Harsh chemicals in certain products do not mix well with electronics.