Do I need $100,000 or $1 million in Errors & Omission (E&O) insurance to get more Notary business?
It is not uncommon for some companies to require that a Notary have more than the standard amount of E&O Insurance. There is no state mandated minimum for E&O unlike a Notary Bond where the law requires every Notary to file an official bond for $15,000 which is designed to pay limited claims against the Notary Public.
But please make no mistake. All Notaries must carry some form of E&O insurance to protect themselves from unintentional errors and omissions they make. Of course, E&O policies will not cover fraudulent acts or intentional errors. Without E&O Insurance, you will have to pay for the cost of the judgment or settlement and your own legal expenses. The financial impact can force a Notary to renounce his/her Notary commission and possibly even declare bankruptcy depending upon then severity of the error.
The high coverage of an E&O policy is based on the false perception that the companies would get a better class of Notary or that they are protected from any and all errors made by the Notary. This is farthest from the truth. I have more than 20 years of experience being a Notary and have never increased my E&O Insurance above the standard amount of $15,000/- primarily for 2 reasons. First, the number of companies requiring $100,000 or even $1 million in E&O Insurance are few and far between and the number of jobs that a Notary gets does not make up for the increased premium for the additional coverage. Second, the E&O policy only covers clerical errors and does not cover any fraudulent acts committed by the Notary. As a matter of practice, I double and sometimes triple check my work and am always cautious of the people who appear before me for a notarization. More importantly, I never do anything that even has the appearance of a scam or fraud. I have no intention of being someone’s boyfriend with no escape clause!!
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You might also like:
The 30 point course – beneficial interest and E&O Insurance
http://blog.123notary.com/?p=14532
Posts about E&O Insurance
http://blog.123notary.com/?tag=eo-insurance
Help, I’m being sued, and E&O insurance won’t help!
http://blog.123notary.com/?p=3570
All you need is $25K, if you sign directly for Fidelity Natl. Title, you will need $100K, but if you sign for a Signing Company they carrier the $100K to $1Mil policy, but you still need the $25K for you.
15+ years experience. 1st American White Glove, Fidelity approved, and sign for everyone.
Comment by WILLIAM ZINN — August 21, 2018 @ 1:53 pm
Isn’t this the scam that allowed signing services to get a foothold in the business? They sold this lie to lenders and escrow companies to allow themselves to be inserted between the notary and the escrow companies. As you and most notaries know, nearly all lenders/escrow companies now require notaries to have at least 500k-1 mil in E&O to be allowed to handle their documents (which allowed the signing services to act as the ‘notary agent’ and steal about half the notary fee). Signing services contribute little to nothing to the effective completion of the closing process other than to spin a lottery wheel to determine which notary gets an assignment (SnapDocs) and perhaps assist inexperienced notaries during an assignment.
Comment by BobH — August 22, 2018 @ 7:07 am