notarize: Notaries and Last Will & Testaments - 06/07/09 08:53 AM
I must sound like the most clueless person in the world when it comes to giving advice about a Last Will & Testament.  I have a good reason:
I'm a Colorado notary -- not an attorney. 
A notary may not give advice about a Last Will & Testament.  Or any kind of legal advice, for any kind of document.  That is, not unless they want to be prosecuted for engaging in unauthorized practice of law, which is a very serious offense.
It's becoming very common for a person to prepare their own Last Will and Testament.  They save themselves hundreds of … (1 comments)

notarize: Putting my notary stamp into 'early retirement' - 02/15/09 11:49 PM
In the topic: Statement of Information: beginning, middle, or end?, I mentioned that I prefer to put this document at the very end.  Mostly because it's time consuming, and I can use that time for reviewing the loan documents.
But there are certain documents that should be at the very beginning, and not at the end.  For example, the HUD Settlement Statement.  Apart from that, I pretty much leave the documents in the stacking order.
However, there are others documents, apart from the settlement statement, that I prefer to have near the top, and get them out of the way -- … (2 comments)

notarize: Avoiding UPL, and still being able to 'give advice' - 01/04/09 09:08 PM
'I have a document that needs to be notarized.', is usually how the conversation will start.  I'll ask the caller what kind of document it is, and if it has notary wording on it.
I'm not concerned with the contents of the document. 
But I am concerned if this person has written the document themselves and wants me to notarize it. It's not a simple matter of getting out my stamp and stamping the document, which is the assumption a lot of people have.  A document that needs to be notarized can either require a jurat or an acknowledgement.  Unfortunately the person requesting the … (4 comments)