Hi everyone! Excited to participate in the Notary Cafe forum. I am a new signing agent in the state of Florida. I haven’t received any loan signings yet. In the mean time I’ve been studying my state laws, signing up for signing companies, watching Youtube videos from more experienced signing agents, and reading the forums like these.
I did get my first request for general notary work today for a power of attorney. Y’all I was soooooooooo nervous. The signers were nice and patient so that made it a little less stressful. I made a couple of mistakes like forgetting to have one of the signers sign my journal. But, overall it went well.
Just wanted to share that I received a promotion from Yelp for advertising. It’s a credit to cover the first $350 of your ad campaign. You get billed once the $350 credit is used up. That’s how I got the POA signing, from a lead on Yelp. I probably won’t continue once the credit it used up because it can get pretty pricey, but at least I can use it to get a few jobs in the mean time.
The one question that I have is what are some of your best practices for handling POAs? I realize there are different laws for different states, but wanted to ask anyway. Thanks.
Florida here too - POAs can be tricky, especially if the signer is in a nursing facility (where I’ve seen most of my POA signings - not since Covid though).
Call usually comes in from family member and I review the usual - does the signer have current valid photo ID, and do you have two witnesses (required by Florida law). I know at times the notary can be a witness on docs, but I don’t take that chance with POAs because many times the witnesses’ signatures are also notarized.
As for procedure, Family or signer provides the form, I advise them on phone to have form completed before I arrive, Upon arrival I identify the signer and the witnesses and put info in my journal. before starting I do some small talk with the signer to make sure the signer is aware of who they are, where they are and what they are signing and this is their wish. Then I go through each page of the document, have them initial each page at the lower right corner, initial in the middle where required (various DPOA stipulations), then proceed to have them sign and I notarize.
It’s a time-consuming appointment. And you have to be careful and make sure there’s no coercion going on. Especially when the signer is in a nursing home. Those are really tricky. And by the way - for your future reference - if you get calls to go to nursing homes to do these, by Florida law the staff cannot witness a signature. The signers will have to come up with two witnesses and not expect staff to do it.
Good luck in your new endeavors
P.S. Forgot the most important part! Leave your business card with the signers and their family members when you leave. And when called to a nursing facility - see the admissions nurse or Ombudsman or social worker - give them a stack of your business cards for future reference.
Don’t forget to cancel YELP account about before next month bill if you don’t want to continue on YELP, it is high fees, for any reason if you forget to cancel yelp account, they will charge your credit card and that charge is non refundable.
Hi Linda. The appointment was at the signer’s house. I was asked if I could be a witness and could the son who was the recipient of the “powers” be a witness. I explained that it would be best for the signer to get 2 witnesses that weren’t relatives and that didn’t have financial interest. They ended up getting 2 of their neighbors to be the witnesses. Thanks for the helpful tips!
Hi this is Patricia from Texas, I got the same offer from Yelp and signed up a few days ago, but just cancelled it today. It didn’t seem to be helpful for LSA in my area, maybe for General Notary. I also signed up on Thumbtack which seems to be very big here in Texas for Notaries.
. Thanks