As of July 2018 Washington state has changed the laws affecting state notarization to include e-signings as an option for notarization. However, before a notary can legally sign e-documents your notary license needs to be updated to include a state endorsement for e-signings. I’ve attached a link to the form for updating your license with the endorsement. The form has a link for you to complete the update online if that is your preference. https://www.dol.wa.gov/forms/659005.pdf
Interesting…the way each state is handling this…differently. As part of WA application is to ‘pick a provider’ within 30 days of application, I’ve found that most providers are quite expensive for the unknown amount of use (if any) a notary MAY need. And (this I honestly don’t know) but if hiring party uses ABC provider and you’ve bought into XYZ provider—then what? Honestly, I don’t think states are putting any thought at all into what they’re doing; nor do legislators have any clue about this.
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I’ve done several e-signings now. I’m signed up with Pavaso, but none of the e-signings have been with Pavaso. I signed in to each company, established my credentials each time, and completed the signings. I have no idea why WA DOL requests a provider - but judging from experience it’s because some legislator with no experience in either signings or contractors thought that was a good idea. Very little that goes on with new laws seems based on common sense. So far as I could ascertain, no notaries were involved in the RULONA revisions for WA.
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I think to not add further confusion on this issue, we need to separate “laws” from “acts”, “statutes” and opinions. RULONA and MENA are not enacted by a governmental body and in my estimation only provide guidelines in establishing uniformity between states on how notaries carry out specific tasks, in this case with regard to e-signing. Your state may or may not adopt these guidelines.
A statute is a law that has been enacted by a legislative body, such as your Secretary of State, or in this case your state Department of Licensing. Electronic signing has been added to the Washington State Notary Guide by an RCW provision. I believe these provisions are there to protect the professional and the consumer. I agree that most of our laws are enacted by people who don’t have battle-tested experience, but most of them establish commissions that include ground troop experience and remarks as part of the process. Adding the state’s endorsement to your Notary License is a small act (at a minor cost) to be fully compliant with your state’s laws and not jeopardize your license. This section is now included as a standard part of new notary applications. But, those of us who have had our licenses before this new provision will need to update your license by adding this endorsement.
Pavaso is a software platform that is used by several signing services (such as AMROCK, American Title, etc.) to accommodate e-signings in an online environment. Pavaso is the software I identified in the state’s request for a provider.
Just wanted to make certain the information was shared for those considering adding e-signings to their body of experience. If you are not certain whether it applies to you, check your state’s current notary guide. Good luck.
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I am a WA notary who does several electronic closings. I think there is a confusion going on here. There are E-signings and E-notarizations, 2 separate things. First of all you do not need to update your Commission for Pavaso, for Amrock closings because you are only performing a E-signings at this time or Hybrid Signings, nothing as of yet is a electronic notarization, you are still printing and wet signing the notarization for the deeds and signature aff’s. You are not electronically notarizing anything. However when the time comes and the notarization act is done electronically you will at that time need to add that to your WA state license as mentioned in the above thread. I have yet to actually have a electronic notarization, my county is not recording electronically yet.
Because the state requires you to have a provider for your e-seal (for e-notarizations) - e-signings have nothing to do with this. This is for obtaining the electronic seal - and for that you need to let them know who is going to be providing your electronic seal.
E-notarization…e-signing…e-closing…remote closing…remote notarization…all different animals but being overlapped, creating confusion.
While I don’t fully disagree with you on the points you are making, I have a different interpretation on the notary involvement in e-signings. You are correct that the recorded instruments require wet signatures for notarizing as part of the Hybrid Signings. But there are many steps to a notarial act other than just the seal and stamp provided by the notary. Recording the identifying information into your Notary Journal is a notarial act. In the electronic document portion of the Hybrid Signing the notary logs into the portal containing the documents and provides personal identifying information and an electronic signature before walking the signers through each aspect of the signing, which you are witnessing as a notarial act. While you are not required to provide any notarizations to those documents you have been instrumental in that signing and you are the authority identified in the closing of that part of the process. We don’t use our stamp when we complete the Patriot Act (or other identifying) form in a wet signing either (except name/aka affidavit), but we still append our signature and title as the identifying authority. You all are aware of this, of course. But I offer my interpretation as another way of how I determined whether the WA state endorsement is needed. (BTW, WA state left it up to me to make this determination - as to whether the endorsement is needed if there is no requirement to append my seal and stamp electronically.) It is certain that this endorsement is required before you can engage in electronic notarizations. So, for the cost of $15, I considered it worth it to err on the side of preparedness under all conditions. Others may make a different determination.
As I stated previously, I submitted the post to share information with fellow professionals. But I do appreciate reading different viewpoints.
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