In my case, one of my nephew’s wife is a notary, and her name just happens extremely similar to mine. As in, identical surnames, and first names that are variants of each other. (Like, if I were Mary and she was Marie.) It would be extremely handy to get her to notarize stuff when we happen to meet up for other reasons, but would having the name of the person notarizing some legal something give rise to raised eyebrows or possibly cause some holdups? Especially if they look into the ‘coincidence’ and learn we are in fact sort of closely related?
It doesn’t matter what her name is. If she’s a certified notary that’s all that counts. Don’t worry about it.The notary is there just to confirm it’s you signing the document, and not someone pretending to be you.
It varies from state to state. I’m a notary in Illinois and there’s no restrictions on it but, according to this article, that’s not true for each state.
For example, Florida and Massachusetts do not allow notarizing the signatures of a Notary’s spouse, parents or children, and Massachusetts extends this prohibition to siblings, domestic partners, half- and step-relatives. North Dakota, Oregon and West Virginia prohibit notarizing for spouses only, though all of these states also recommend against notarizing for other family members. A Pennsylvania Notary may not notarize signatures on documents that the Notary’s spouse has a direct or pecuniary interest in.
On the other hand, many states, such as Texas, do not restrict Notaries from notarizing for relatives at all. Some states, including Alabama, California and Montana, caution Notaries against notarizing documents for relatives even though the law doesn’t specifically ban it.
It also cautions against notarizing anything you’ll gain a financial benefit from, though I assume that applies even if they’re not family.
Edit: None of the examples listed seem to apply to your more distant relation but I’d check your state just to make sure.
Oddly, my notary stamp doesn’t have any official ID number or other identifying information besides my name. My name, “Official Seal”, state of Illinois and when my commission expires. If there were multiple in-state notaries with my name, the date would be the only information that might suggest which of us stamped the document.
I had an interesting notary experience a couple years ago. I sold a boat. Met the buyer at a local notary I’d used previously and considered a friend/acquaintance.
After completing my end of things and paying my sales tax, I left.
A week later, the notary stopped at my business with a form for me to sign. Apparently she’d made an error. But the form was blank. She wanted my signature and was meeting the buyers later that day for them to complete the remainder of the form. I refused. My signature means something and I couldn’t believe she thought I’d sign a form that was blank!
She was really pissed off. I use a different notary now.
Thanks for the info. It looks like it’s not forbidden, but maybe I should just accept the inconvenience of finding someone else to notarize just in case.
Actually, this whole thing is turning out to be a major hassle. The situation is that I have a whole bunch of U.S. savings bonds (mostly E but some I and few odd ones) that my mother had bought over the years. I guess as a super-safe emergency savings just in case sort of thing? When she died (about 15 years ago now) she left her estate to her three children equally. We’re not talking about a lot of money, and we three got along well, and so a lot of the splitting up was done informally among us.
My brothers didn’t want the hassle of dealing with the savings bonds, so I (stupidly) agreed to take them as part of my share. We found a web site where you could look up the value of each (based on the date of issue/denomination, these are paper bonds by the way) to find out what they were currently worth, added up all the numbers, and took that amount off the portion of cash I was to get. Sounds simple enough, though tedious.
But I wasn’t in the mind to deal with whatever the hassles would be because the bonds were in HER name rather than mine, so I stuck them in an envelope in my file cabinet and ignored them. There’s been several times I thought about cashing them to use for various things that seemed a ‘suitable’ way to use Mom’s gift to me, like when we replaced the roof or bought a new car, but always just decided it was too much of a hassle to deal with just then.
BTW, maybe that’s the secret to why savings bonds are such a good way for people to save? They’re not exactly designed to let you cash them out on a whim, are they?
And then there was Covid, and my local, handy, friendly little bank turned into little more than a lobby with ATMs you could access. If you needed anything more, you had to make an appointment and some real banker-type person would come to meet with you. And then it changed to you’d have to make the appointment to meet at a different bank office, several towns away, multiplying the hassles…and so the bonds sit in my file cabinet.
But a couple of days ago someone told me I could redeem the bonds directly from the US office without having to use a bank. Just get form something or other (I don’t have my note at hand), get it notarized, and send it with the bonds off to some address and after a while I’d get a check or direct deposit to a bank account or whatever.
Sounded great (except for some trepidation about sending off the bonds and hoping all goes well) but I’m not sure how having the name ‘wrong’ is going to play out. I’m guessing I’ll have to provide proof of my mother’s death? And that I’m one of her heirs? (Both of my brothers have since died, which might be awkward, too.)
So maybe I should just make the appointment to meet a banker at wherever?
Nothing is ever simple.
Oh, shoot. I realize the title I put on my first post isn’t really useful for what I really need help with. Can I get someone to change it? Maybe to something like, “How to easily redeem inherited US Savings Bonds”
I tried to report the message, but the block to enter text is greyed out?
Sorry for the cluelessness.
You can turn your paper bonds into virtual ones. My sister handled this in a somewhat similar situation when my folks died. I don’t remember if she had to scan them, or just unload all the numbers, but with the correct death certificate, she was able to upload all of them to the US Treasury’s website. Each time one matures, she gets a notice that it has been redeemed and the funds put into a zero-interest account for distribution.
FWIW, about the only time a notary would get called back in on something is if one party disputed having signed a contract and the notary needs to attest that, yes, both people signed it. This doesn’t sound likely in your case so I (in my unofficial opinion) figure that using your distant relative is fine because it’s legal in your state and it’s extremely unlikely that anyone will ever care.
the fact that this person has a name similar to yours is a red herring. Absent other problematic facts, there is absolutely nothing wrong with someone with a name similar to yours notarizing for you. The fact that this person is related to you, albeit not closely, is also not a problem, as she is sufficiently distant such that no state laws are implicated. The only time she should NOT notarize something for you is when she has a potential financial interest in the document she is notarizing, or there are other facts that might create the appearance of impropriety.
Title changed per your request.
Thank you!
I have a general question about notaries: are they hard to find?
Why use your relative?
I’ve only used a notary once in my life, 50 years ago, to buy a used car. But back then I remember that notaries were common. I think every pharmacy had an employee who was also a notary, available almost 24 hours a day.
Last year I needed a notary and used my credit union for free. They did ask if I was a member but I’m not sure if saying “no” meant no notary for me or a fee. Pretty sure most currency exchange/check cashing places offer the same and a brief Google suggests shipping stores (Mailboxes Etc) offer the service.
I once had a cousin travel an hour each way to have me notarize something. I explained they could get it done way closer but they still chose to use me. I’ve notarized for a few other friends but usually because we could meet at a McDonalds at 8pm.
All of the companies where I have worked have had one or two employees who were notaries and I think, within reason, they would notarize for employees. My insurance company and my credit union have notary services free for customers.
UPS stores have notaries on staff, or at least the several that I went to did.
Yeah, I ended up at UPS to notarize a form so I could send the paper bonds to be digitally converted. I forget how much it cost but it was less than $10. I even made an appointment to make sure a notary was available, but I needn’t have bothered.
Many bank branches may have a notary on hand if you have an account but you should check with the individual branch if they do and if they are working that day.
Oh, excellent! First hand knowledge!
Can you elaborate some? Did you do any precautions, like, oh, keep a list of the numbers of the bonds, or maybe xerox copies? Did you ship via UPS, or did you just use them for the CPA and then mail them? I assume the procedure went okay? About how long did it take?
Thanks for any additional info.