So you want to be a Notary Public or a Signing Agent

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How to become a notary public and or a Notary Signing Agent

First, you must be a Notary Public before you can become a Signing Agent.

What do you need to become a NYS Notary Public, Requirements, Fees, Written Exam? Read it here: https://dos.ny.gov/notary-public

Read the Notary Public Law currently Jan 2023 at:
https://dos.ny.gov/system/files/documen ... 1.2023.pdf
Be sure to memorize the "Definitions and General Terms" as those word will be used on the test.
This is the notary public bible the information in this link is very important to learn.

If the link stop working, you can just go to the NYS website for notary site as the link get updated often

Notary blogs - where you can find help, sometime condescending remarks, other times helpful.

http://www.123notary.com/index.html there are interesting stories on this website, but I would not sign up for any adverting on that site. As the owner Jerry Belmont will call you to give you a verbal test & if you list your sign as being 24/7 he will call you in the middle of the night to see if you actually answer the phone.

Other notary blog:
https://www.notaryrotary.com/
https://notarycafe.com/ - notary café is used by other Signing Agencies to find a Notary Signing Agents, NSA. So, it’s a good idea to sign up with this company once you become a NSA.

National Notary Association aka NNA, provide notary information, & basic notary supplies such as; notary stamps, log books, Notary Signing Agent (NSA) training & certification, background checks, E&O insurance. When you become a member, there is a Hotline number you can call for any notary related questions. The NNA is like a notary union. When you sign up and pass their NSA course to become a certified NSA you will be listed on their website https://www.signingagent.com/

Notary Public's supplies, you will need:
• Notary Rubber stamp
• Acknowledgement or Jurat loose certificate (helpful when there is not enough room on the page to include) (You can make your own, or buy them for the NNA)
• log book – Mandatory for NYS notary publics, optional for some states
• Embosser is a raised seal, it is not a notary stamp for NY notaries - optional - but some people will request it, so its nice to have
• Printer - optional but helpful if ask to print out a document for a client (so you can charge an extra fee for printing). Also, if you plan on becoming a Notary Signing Agent, you will need a dual tray laser jet printer.
• Clip board – optional -
• Business Cards – Don’t leave home without one - https://www.vistaprint.com/ is one place, Stapels, etc.
• Nice to have: Venmo, PayPal’s Zettle with a separate credit card reader to capture debit cards, or Square & a credit card swipe , Zelle. If you have a new iPhone with a NFC reader you can take payment right from your phone with the Zettle app (from PayPal).
Don’t sign-up with any credit card company as I found them to be expensive and there are all kinds of fees to be paid.

Notary Signing Agent or Loan Signing Agent Training. There are several others, but these are worth mentioning:

To be a Signing Agent you should be certified, not a requirement, however, there is no on the job training, you need to have a background check, & have at least $10,000 Errors and Omission (E&O) Insurance. cost about $20/year
You can do all the above through the NNA.

Become Certified NSA at:
Notary2Pro - NSA training https://courses.notary2pro.com/
Mark has a lot of hype on social media about making 6 figure income, $100,000 if you take his loan signing course.

Mark Willis Loan signing course - https://www.loansigningsystem.com/

What’s E & O Insurance
NSA's need E & O Insurance, Errors and Omissions Insurance to cover you the Notary for unintentional damaging actions performed during the term of their policy, up to the policy limit. Information on liability limits and terms are shown on Errors and Omission (E&O) Insurance page. As long as the notarial act occurred within an E&O policy’s effective term, it is not unusual for the policy to cover resulting claims presented after its expiration date. Some title or escrow companies may require you to have a higher value E&O policy.

As Notary Signing Agent you will need these supplies:
• A Computer or a Laptop
• Notary Rubber stamp
• Log book – Mandatory for NYS Notaries – optional for some other states
• Embosser - optional
• Letter & Legal paper
• Printer - must be a dual tray laser jet for legal & letter paper to loaded at the same time. If you only have a single tray printer you can use a program call page splitter that will separate letter & legal size pages. This will allow you to change your paper to the next size to print.
• Scanner - make sure it can handle 8.5 by 14 size paper.
• Fax - optional, scanning is much better. If you do fax make sure you set up the fax machine so that it will only send a page when the other machine has accepted it without any issues. Otherwise, you could send 100 page & never know the other fax only accepted 10.
It is best to get a Brother MFC printer as it does Print, scan, & fax. Make sure the scanner has a flat bed can accommodate a legal size paper.
• Cell Phone
• Extra printer toner
• Pens – blue & black
• Bag to carry your stuff & big enough to fit legal size paper
• Rescission Calendar -free from https://www.nationalnotary.org/knowledg ... n-calendar
• Binder Clips
• Business cards
• Bank Account – Business bank account will help you when need to sort your personal & business expense & will make it easy to see your profit. Read the information on Banking before trying to set up a business bank account.

Software:
If you don't have a dual tray printer you can use a software call PAGE SEPERATOR that will allow you to printer all the letter pages & load the legal pages & print those. You can use a free version on the following website: https://www.notaryrotary.com/mc/pdfsorter.asp
• Acrobat PDF reader
• Car – A reliable car is necessary as you have to travel to your client. If you do a lot of jobs you might want to invest in setting up your vehicle as a mobile office. A mobile office will consist of:
A Battery - AGM, Gel Cell at least 100 Ampere Hour, 2000 Watt PURE SIGNWAVE inverter, Dual Tray, Scanner, Printer (i.e., Brother MFC series)

Books:
I’ve read, maybe helpful to you:
• 222 Way to Promote your Small Business
• Mobile Marketing
• Marketing Advice for Notary Signing Agents
• NSA Q & A
• Twelve Steps to A Flawless Notarization
• Loan Documents Sourcebook by NNA

Incorporate your business
Which one is better and LLC or Inc.
If you own a home it's advisable to register your notary services as a business. This will protect you & your home if you are sued for a large amount of money & your E&O does not cover the it. The plaintiff can put a lien on you home & can collect when you sell your home.
Creating a corporation is fast, just go to your secretary of state website, search for the business name you want to make sure it's available. You maybe able to put hold on the name you want so no-one else can use it until you officially get it registered.
Setting up a LLC requires you to advertise in 2 news papers & can take weeks to be official. There is also a cost to advertise in both papers.

Assumed Name
You can also setup your business with an alias or a assumed name with the County Clerk in the county were you live. If you use your real name you don’t have to create an assumed name. Using an alias for a business name offers No protection for you or your home.

Banking:
Once you have a business name established with the county clerk or with the secretary of state you can get a business bank account to keep your business money separate from your personal income for tax purpose. Banks I found helpful (cheap) were TD bank & CapitalOne bank. Business taxes returns are due March 15 which is a month earlier than your personal income tax return.

Save money with you corporation tax
Your incorporate you start off a an ‘C” corporation. This means you will be paying your business income separate from you personal income tax.
So, file with the IRS to be treated as a 'S' corp & not a 'C' corp as it will save you from paying additional taxes

https://dos.ny.gov/certificate-incorpor ... orations-0

Work:
https://www.snapdocs.com/get-started
https://www.fieldchoice.com/
https://nationsdirect.net/
http://pacdocsign.com
https://signingcarolina.com/


How to become a Remote Online Notary in New York - RON
Starting on January 31, 2023, Notaries in New York can apply to perform remote online notarization (RON).
approved vendors, BlueNotary, DocuSign, DocVerify, Notarize, NotaryCam, Pavaso, Safedocs and SIGNiX offer end-to-end notarization solutions.
From <https://www.nationalnotary.org/knowledg ... y/new-york>