California passed a remote online notarization bill in 2023. The video explains what this means for notary loan signing agents, the timeline for implementation, and current limits on lender acceptance of e-notarizations and e-closings.
Chapters
Remote online notarizations are coming to California. So what does that mean for California notaries and what does that mean for the entire remote online notary community? So watch this video. I'm going to break it all down. I want to start with California notaries and then I'll get to the overall landscape of remote online notaries in America. So SB696 just passed the state California legislature. You got to understand how laws come into effect. Let me break it down. The first step is the Senate and Assembly passing the bill. That's what happened in California. SB696, also known as a remote online notary bill, just passed the legislation. That does not mean it's law, by the way. All that means is it passed the legislature. Now it goes to the governor. The governor has to sign it into law. So just because SB696 is passed, it does not mean it is legal for remote online notarization in California. But the most likely is Governor Newsom will sign the act into law. That doesn't stop there. Once Governor Newsom signs it into law, it then gets moved over to the Secretary of State. The Secretary of State then needs to build out the guidelines. Remote online notaries in California. So you know, if there's like a California notary handbook, an Arizona notary handbook, a Washington handbook, Secretary of State sentiently make another one for remote online notarizations. And inside this bill, SB696, it gives the Secretary of State seven years to come up with that framework. Seven years to come up with a remote online notary handbook. So it is not coming into law anytime soon. So a lot of insiders that I speak to will be surprised if the Secretary of State gets to this within two years. They're not going to be surprised if it takes three to five years for the SOS to get the guidebook out into the hands of the notary. So just because SB696 has passed does not mean that remote online notarizations in California are coming down the pike anytime soon. Is it exciting news for the ROM community? Yes. But the reality of it is it's still a long road ahead for the SOS to create the guidelines. So let's talk about the bigger picture for the overall remote online notary community. I get a lot of times, Mark, my state is remote online notary approved. What does that mean for loan signings? It means nothing. But you need to understand is just because your state allows remote online notaries, it doesn't mean that the bank allows their Loan documents to be e signed. Remember, as a notary public loan signing agent, there's only four to five on average papers out of 150 that need to be notarized. But the other 145 pages also need to be e signed. And the lenders have to be okay with the complete real estate e closing. That is not the case right now. So what I tell all my students is what you need to look for in the news is not if your state pass remote online notary, but does the lenders allow e notary? So you need to be listened to Wells Fargo, bank of America and Chase. If you read the finance section of your paper or Yahoo News, you see that, then you gotta think, okay, now it's become more critical mass for loan signing agents. So I don't think this changes much because there was already 45 states who allowed remote online notaries and most lenders weren't on board as of today. They got to figure out a lot of other infrastructure for this to truly happen. So while this may be exciting for California loan signing agents, this really doesn't affect you at all. And in fact in California, your GNW general notary work notaries, it really doesn't affect you because it'll probably be three to five years before a remote online notary is actually completed in the state of California. So it's an exciting day as we're moving forward with technology. But traditional loan signings are still here to stay here for the immediate future. So make sure you stay the course. I hope this video brought you a lot of information as we start going forward with this. I'm going to keep you more up to date, let you know if and when Wells Fargo B of A Chase allow e closing, let you know when you need a full throttle transition your business. But right now there is nothing in my opinion on the close horizon that tells me that remote online noting real estate closings is even close to getting a little bit of traction in our industry. So hope you like this video. Subscribe if you like more information just like this. If you have any questions about this exciting day, don't think to comment below. And let's go sa.
