I took your advice and Googled it. I found more than one source saying that an absence of two impartial witnesses can invalidate a will. However, that's not the same thing as saying that notarizing a will makes it invalid (unless it's notarized without witnesses). The difference is subtle but significant. The result may be the same, i.e. that we don't notarize wills, but how we communicate to others who might request us to do so is also very important. As always, this refers to California law and may be different from other states.
BTW, one of the sources I found was from the American Association of Notaries, which had me scratching my head. [Just for reference: http://www.notarypublicstamps.com/articles/guide-to-notarizing-wills] I found some of what's in this article questionable, especially when it comes to differences between states. Here's one paragraph that I thought was overly broad, e.g. "both of whom must have their signatures notarized":
"If you decide to notarize a last will and testament, you should carefully review the notarial certificate. Because two impartial witnesses are usually required - both of whom must have their signatures notarized - the notary would not be able to sign as both a notary public and as a witness to the signing of the will. This is a departure from real estate documents, where notaries commonly sign in both capacities. As always, notaries can generally sign as a witness and as a notary, provided that the pre-printed notarial certificate does not require the notarization of the witnesses' signatures." What?!
Is anyone a member of the American Notary Association? Are they just a wannabe NNA? A long time ago, I 'followed' them on Facebook just because why not, and I've been pretty surprised by some of the stuff that gets posted. Most of it seems to be promoting special interests, not those of every day notaries. I've seen lots of stuff promoting RON going back years. And yesterday I saw a post about a 24 yo guy bragging about making $140K as a mobile notary - and farming out work... It won't surprise anyone here that it was promoting his notary bootcamp for I don't know how much. Not new, but pretty disappointing.
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