Beneficiary Documents

Beginner's Questions
1

Hello all- Not sure if you can help me with this. I just got a notification to do a beneficiary document signing. I don’t even know what it is or what entails. They said it’s 8 pages. Is there anything I need to know? Am I just supposed to watch them fill it out and sign it then sign and stamp it?

I’m a new notary- I haven’t done a single signing yet.

2

This is general notary work … What you need to know is your state notary laws and if the document preparer/recipient is wanting witnesses on the docs. Signers provide any witnesses.

You are the notary…that’s it … notarize, don’t analyze, breathe and just take your time and follow your state laws…you’ll be fine.

Good luck

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Many types of insurance or retirement policies have some kind of a beneficiary form that may require notarization. It is common general notary work like Linda says. There are many kinds. Here are three examples:

  1. https://www.fmsmf.org/PDFs/DualBeneForm.pdf
  2. https://www.cnbcustody.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/Designation-of-Beneficiary-Form.pdf (I would use my own certificate for this one because there isn’t much room for a notary stamp.)
  3. https://hr.unm.edu/docs/benefits/erb-beneficiary-designation-form-(still-employed).pdf) this third example is the kind I like because it includes helpful instructions/explanations for the member on how they would fill it out. So if/when a signer has a question on how to fill out, in this case I tell them to refer to the instructions. If they still have questions or if the form they have does not have any instructions, the notary would tell them to contact the person or department who is requesting them to fill out the form.

Welcome to NotaryCafe, Thomas! We were all brand new at one point. You can discover lots of helpful information in this forum using the search feature:

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FL - As both Linda and Carmen both mentioned you are performing general notary work. For example, in Florida, before we could notarize such a document there can be no blank lines or fields, every line/field must be completed or marked “N/A”. This reduces the chances of fraudulent acts. Some financial documents can be used for numerous purposes, not only regarding beneficiary(ies). Since you didn’t mentioned your state, it’s important to know your prohibitive acts.

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When I lived in KY my beneficiary docs had to be done at Attorneys office. Depends where you are check with SOS