NEIL L. KLEEGER NNA Certified Notary Signing Agent Office:(661) 254-7502 Cell: (818) 522-3189 neil@kleegernotary.com NNA Position: Proposed California Title and Escrow Regulations May Negatively Affect Notaries, Consumers By Michael Mink - August 25, 2006 In an action that could negatively affect consumers and the financial livelihood of California's 286,000 Notaries, California Insurance Commissioner John Garamendi has planned to unilaterally enact drastic reductions in the fees the title and escrow industry may charge. If initiated, the extensive new regulations would reduce title and escrow fees by 27 percent of year 2000 levels on an interim basis - the first step toward making them permanent. The National Notary Association is strongly opposed to these regulations because they will have unintended consequences for consumers, Notaries and the economy. (To view the NNA's letter of opposition to the proposed regulations, go to: <http://www.nationalnotary.org/userimages/garamendi-ltr0806.pdf>. If the fee reduction is implemented, title and escrow companies predict they will be forced to lay off a significant portion of their workforce - thousands of which hold California Notary Public commissions - and reduce, or even eliminate, the use of many outside contractors, including Notary Signing Agents. If Notary Signing Agents are still used, they will not be used as often, and they should expect drastic fee reductions. Many NSAs will find themselves working for rates that won't allow them to continue in their profession full time, or at all. As a result, consumers will lose the convenience and security provided by Notary Signing Agents, while title and escrow notarization duties would be delegated to in-house Notaries with substantial workloads. The only thing that will increase is fraud. Without NSAs, there will be far fewer checks and balances in safeguarding the public's interests during closings. A robust mobile NSA workforce helped fuel California's real estate market boom at the turn of the century. A reduction in the ranks of NSAs will mean slower, and possibly even fewer, closings. With perhaps fewer people selling their homes, equity stays locked in property, rather than being put back into the economy. The proposed rules will be the subject of an August 30th public hearing in San Francisco. The NNA will be sending a representative to the proceedings to speak on behalf of California's Notaries and the interests of consumers. The NNA needs the help of every California Notary during this critical hour to write Commissioner Garamendi to request that he withdraw the proposed regulations. For instructions and submission suggestions, click here: <http://www.nationalnotary.org/userimages/CA-writResp0806.pdf> . Written comments may be submitted by e-mail, fax or regular mail to: Bryant Henley, Staff Counsel California Department of Insurance 45 Fremont Street, 21st Floor San Francisco, CA 94105 E-mail: henleyb@insurance.ca.gov Fax: (415) 904-5490 Comments must be received no later than 5 p.m. on August 30. Notaries who reside near or in San Francisco are encouraged to attend the public hearing to offer their written or oral comments. The hearing will commence at 10 a.m. at the Department of Insurance's Hearing Room, 45 Fremont Street, 22nd Floor, San Francisco. http://www.nationalnotary.org/news/index.cfm?Text=newsNotary&newsID=1009   Thursday, June 08, 2006   NNA Conference a Global Event WASHINGTON, D.C. The professional Notary event of the year officially launched Monday, and Notaries and officials from across the nation and around the globe celebrated the event at the NNA's 28th annual Conference "Kick-Off" Breakfast at the Crystal Gateway Marriott. In his opening remarks, NNA President Milt Valera welcomed the more than 1,000 Conference attendees from 37 states and 23 countries and explained that this year's theme, "Tradition of Trust, Spirit of Innovation," was selected because societal, political and technological shifts have reshaped the Notary office and brought it to a much higher level of importance and urgency. "Today, we are increasingly being called upon to uphold our tradition of trust as impartial, third-party witnesses to important transactions especially in the digital realm through electronic notarization while finding innovative ways to adapt this tradition to the changing world around us," Valera said. "This year's Conference is about meeting that challenge. It is about taking the important next steps in the evolution of Notaries. It's about embracing the electronic world and keeping it safe from the growing threats of identity fraud, forgery, and even terrorism. And it's about understanding and taking advantage of new opportunities that have arisen from these shifts." Speaker Christophe Bernasconi, First Secretary of the Hague Conference on Private International Law (HCCH), underscored that the Notary's role has truly become international, and Notaries around the world have become "one big family." "Your notarial certificates that you establish are public documents under the (Hague's) Apostille Convention," Bernasconi said. Apostilles are certificates that have been used for decades to authenticate notarial acts under a special Hague Conference treaty signed by 87 nations. "Our ultimate goal despite the legal, personal and business differences of each country is to bring a high degree of security and credibility to documents exchanged between nations," Bernasconi said. "You can contribute to the success. Your actions, certifications, authentications the ones you originally thought might only be going next door may well be internationally apostillized to become a piece of the overall puzzle of documents that determine the rights of another person. This is all the more reason to take your professional duty and your responsibility seriously." Also at the breakfast, North Carolina Secretary of State Elaine Marshall was presented with the prestigious March Fong Eu Achievement Award, which annually honors a worthy official for accomplishment in imparting the professionalism of the Notary office. Keynote "When 4.6 million Notaries from across America give you a stamp of approval, it's amazing. All I can say is wow," Marshall said in accepting her award. "I have the deepest respect for the value that Notaries add to transactions, and I say this as a government official and attorney who once litigated cases involving notarized documents. I encourage Notaries to achieve the highest level of professionalism ... and I am proud of my work and the work of the NNA in promoting this professionalism. "I am humbled by this honor... and my staff and I in North Carolina are ready for challenges ahead." Marshall's efforts for Notaries culminated last year in the passage of Senate Bill 671, precedent-setting legislation that laid the foundation for secure performance of eNotarizations and modernized nearly every facet of North Carolina's statutory practices and procedures for Notaries. The bill modeled largely after Article III of the NNA's 2002 Model Notary Act marked one of the first efforts by a state to tackle the complex issues of regulating eNotarizations in parallel with traditional paper-based notarial acts. Additionally, Marshall was instrumental in helping draft a National Association of Secretaries of State (NASS) resolution in 2005, reaffirming that state Notary-commissioning officials should be the primary authority to establish eNotarization standards in their jurisdictions. Plus, she is also serving as chair of the first-ever National eNotarization Commission, which will develop model standards for legally enforceable, secure eNotarizations. *Article courtesy of National Notary Association Thursday, April 20, 2006 Interactive Conference eNotarization Lab WASHINGTON, D.C. The groundbreaking Electronic Notary Seal (ENS) Program and the Enjoa electronic notarization platform took center stage Monday during the 2006 Conference's state-of-the-art eNotarization Lab, where NNA experts, e-document technology authorities and mortgage industry officials demonstrated how Notaries can now begin performing electronic notarizations. Hundreds of Notaries attended the Lab during the opening day of its three-day run to gain hands-on experience with the ENS Program, which grants the security that businesses and governments today need to spur economic development and improve e-commerce. Attendees were able to give secure eNotarization a test-drive by affixing an ENS to an electronic document in Microsoft Word, Adobe PDF and other digital document formats. Notaries also received hands-on experience with Enjoa the revolutionary electronic journal of notarial acts developed by the NNA, which doubles as an eNotarization platform to capture electronically affixed holographic signatures and apply an Electronic Notary Seal. Several county recording and mortgage industry representatives also held widely attended presentations in the Lab, which showed attendees how eNotarization is currently being used in day-to-day transactions. Charlie Epperson, E-Commerce Architect for Stewart Title, demonstrated Stewart's proprietary eClosing Room for mortgages; Steve McDonald, Recorder of Deeds for Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, demonstrated how electronic land titles are being recorded in Pennsylvania; and John London of Interlink Electronics demonstrated methods of e-signing digital documents. With eNotarization now a reality and beginning to spread across the nation, the Lab was a must-stop for all Conference attendees. In February, Pennsylvania launched its historic eNotarization Initiative the first-ever statewide system for eNotarization based on, and made secure by, the NNA's landmark ENS Program. The ENS Program's core attribute is that it makes eNotarization highly secure. In addition to Pennsylvania, Notaries in localized programs in seven other states are also able to perform electronic notarizations. Notaries affix the ENS to digital documents to perform highly secure notarizations. Instead of signing by hand and affixing an official rubber stamp seal, a Notary digitally attaches the ENS to the electronic document. The ENS enables relying parties to authenticate in real time the authority of the Notary who affixed the seal and to detect alterations to a digital document after it has been notarized. More information on eNotarization is available at NationalNotary.org/eNotarization. *Article courtesy of National Notary Association