because that is what came with my bond. When I renew in the next year I will be getting a $5,000 policy. Anything more than that, based on the type of notarizations I routinely perform, will be useless. Heck, even the $1,000 E&O may be useless. I have never notarized for a million dollar transaction, and I rarely encounter loan docs. Where I might have liability is wills, because I notarize a lot of them. But I am always careful; I prepare the wills in my office (as a paralegal, not a notary), and the certificates are already filled in and statutory compliant when they are printed.
I do believe that every notary (signing agent or not) should carry at least $5,000. Yes, I know that sounds hypocritical, and it probably sounds arrogant to say that I don't often make mistakes, but with my finances being what they are, and considering that business is so slow that I've performed maybe 10 notarizations in the past month, if that, I can't warrant spending the extra money at this moment. When I renew, however, I will be purchasing the $5,000 policy.
I have found that clueless notaries (the ones who make the most glaring and obvious mistakes on a regular basis), don't have E&O much less know what it is. But notaries who are somewhat knowledgeable (who are less likely to make mistakes), will be prudent enough to purchase E&O. The types of errors that the typical clueless notary might make would probably not be covered under E&O anyway. (Example: "This person presented a voter card with no photo as ID and I thought that was OK"... that isn't an error/ommission, it's because the notary doesn't know what they are doing. Errors cover "forgot to administer an oath" (NOT "I never administer an oath because I didn't know it was required"); "didn't sign my name correctly this time" (NOT "I always sign my name incorrectly"). It just depends, I suppose, on whether it was truly a one-time error, or consistent bad practices on the part of the notary. "Forgot to put a certificate on a document" is not an error. "Forgot to stamp it", is an error.
If that makes sense.
MHO |
