OT Follow-up on notarizing will

How did you work-around the "sound mind" statement ? :-) John T.

I started one 4 years ago and I included that, but I notice that this time I just skipped it.

I think that the only responsibility of a notary is to confirm that you have signed the document. Why should it matter what is in it?

Google sez:

"A Notary's duty is to screen the signers of important documents ? such as property deeds, wills and powers of attorney ? for their true identity, their willingness to sign without duress or intimidation, and their awareness of the contents of the document or transaction."

I needed to have letter involving money notarized and I had no problem getting it done by a non-lawyer.

Aunt Matilda passed away. I was the named beneficiary on her savings account. The bank required a certified copy of the death certificate and a letter from me - with my signature notarized - requesting the funds.

I knew that my Financial Advisor's assistant was a notary. It took all of 5 minutes for him to notarize it.

However, let's get back to your specific issue. Maryland, right?

You say that you have asked all these entities if they will notarize your

"Do I Need to Have My Will Notarized? No, in Maryland, you do not need to notarize your will to make it legal. Maryland does allow you to make your will "self-proving," which speeds up probate because the court can accept the will without contacting the witnesses who signed it.

To make your will self-proving, you and your witnesses will go to the notary and sign an affidavit that states who you are and that each of you knew you were signing the will. Md. Code Ann. [Est. and Trusts] § 4-606."

BTW...when I co-signed a mortgage for a family member who lived in another state, all of the documents were initially signed electronically. Then, once everything was done and the closing documents were ready, I was contacted by a notary who lived just a few miles from me. My wife and I went to her "office" (her dining room table) and signed all of the paperwork. She told me that she was a traveling notary and did all sorts of "remote notarizing" for real estate companies, financial firms, companies, etc.

They're not dummies. That would not get them to do what they don't want to do. "Notarize my will" is short-speak for notarize the witness statements.

Yes, I know that stuff from the two paragraphs above.

I'm glad you got it done so easily.

If everything goes well, it doesn't matter what is in it, but if they allow an imposter to sign and they notarize it, and they can be shown to have been negligent, they, I'm sure, can be held liable for some or all of the damages. Their big job is to verify that the person signing is who he says he is**, and their insurance company is not convinced they can always meet that standard. Or the insurance company doesn't want to defend them in a lawsuit even if the notary wasn't negligent and wins . What is in the document is directly related to how much the damages might be.

The upshot is that most people have their will notarized in their attorney's office. Even then I suppose someone could put on a weeks long charade pretending to be someone else, but that's a Hitchcock movie.

I think it will be pretty clear I'm not under duress, and that I know it's a will, but they're not taking any chances about my identity. For things they will do, they want a driver's license, and most or all banks insist on a depositor or mortgagor with their bank, who will have an ATM card, but what's to prevent my girlfriend from 'borrowing' my ID at night and lending it to her boyfriend, so he can pretend to be me and do all kinds of dirty business the next day. Then she can put the ID back in my wallet and push the wallet under the sofa so I think I lost it there.

But they are not notarizing the will. They are simply notarizing a document that states that the 2 people standing in front of them witnessed you sign the will. They are one step removed from notarizing a will.

Did you specifically ask them if they will notarize a self-proving affidavit or did you always use the words "notarize my will"?

When it comes to legal stuff "short-speak" can get you in a lot of trouble or not get you what you wanted/expected. Words matter.

I think they'll look at both in the same way. If not, I'm surprised the last woman, the UPS woman who was so verbal and seemed so well informed didn't ask me the question you did. I wonder if I'll be able to find her again. (I probably can. There are maybe 5 people who work at that UPS at 3PM on Friday, fewer who answer the phone and she might have been the owner. I may have to go in to get her attention but I like to pursue these things. If I'm wrong, I want to know (but I'm not saying I'm the first to admit it! We'll see.)

Yes, if they provide the witnesses, for sure t hey know who the witnesses are, and that's what they are notarizing. But if I'm an imposter, I don't think they want to be a part of that. They don't want to risk that I'm an imposter.

the latter.

I definitely agree that words matter. I make that point myself pretty often. Sometimes I say, "It's bad enough we don't get along when we disgrree, but it's even worse we don't get along when we agree but misunderstand each other."

I will call them monday even if I settle this on Sunday (UPS is busy on Saturday, and prob

To at least one party of the 3, I said "witnessed and notarized" but I don't expect people to get from that to your former choice.

I'm glad I still have 7 business days.

I haven't yet talked to any of the people at 2 banks and one UPS who told me No, but today I talked to someone who told me Yes.

He said that they can be called into court by those who want them to testify that they did indeed witness the signatures. I guess not doubting so much that it was I, but that they were they. They give their name and address and the notary keeps a ledger which might include this too. (The notary was one of the witnesses, and yes, that's fine.)

And, he said, the banks don't want one of their employees to spend hours in court waiting for a given case to be called. For other matters, the ones the bank will notarize, it must be that they are rarely challenged, but but wills etc. involve a lot of money. So if I'm right, it doesn't matter if they are notarizing the witness signatures or the will itself. What matters is, will they have to take their time to come to court. And banks don't want their employees taking time off to do that.

And not only that he notarized every page, including the will.

This guy does it all the time. He either advertises on the radio, or he hosts a radio show, during which he advertises, and he frequently mentions notarizing. And he says that everyone who works at his store is a notary. He must be a rare one becase I've never heard someone advertising on radio or tv as a notary. OTOH, he charges 65 dollars for

The traveling notary said it was $5 per signature = 15 (somehow) and 8 for travel (and indeed she was coming from 1/4 of the way around the city, requiring actual travel time. I don't think 8 dollars is enough for that, but I don't t hink the total would have only been $23 either, becaue it would take at least 15 minute and 20 minutes each way,

As I said, the one I'd contacted a week ago couldn't do it becuase her mother just died and she was going to NYS for the funeral. So Friday night I Nextdoor messaged two notaries on the Nextdoor list, one of whom is in the same n'hood where my planned witnesses live, and I told her that. But tonight as of 25 hours later, neither has gotten back to me. When they hadn't called or written this morning I took yesterday's recommdation of this other notary, who has a baseball memorablia store, with really nice stuff, much of it autographed. Plus he's a maildrop with about 50 mailboxes and he does UPS too, although his webpage doesn't mention any of that.

I guess he doesn't want to demean his memorabilia business with prosaic services and he probably advertises his UPS and maildrop services where people who want that stuff will see it. Huh, under UPS, there's a UPS access pointe at Michaels crafts which is literally right across the street! Two in one block? And they have a UPS Store in the same building as Michaels, but with an address on the cross street!! I'm sure it said UPS on the window but online it seems he is Postal USA.

Street View shows the sign I saw. It lists UPS, Fedex, ebay, the local electric company, the local phone company, and the local cable company (all of them for paying bills. I used to do that when I was late, before the internet). For UPS, he probably takes the package and walks it across the street!!

He said that banks send him a lot of notary business. I'm sure he doesn't want to wait in court either but at $65, it's worth it once in a while.

How much do banks charge? I thought it was free for their own customers. It's free but they don't want to do it. Reminds me of the story: The woman comes into the market and says, How much are your blueberies? $7/pint. The store down the street charges 5 dollars a pint. So buy them there. He's out of them. Well, when I'm out of them, I charge $3 a pint.

So the banks are out of them, but they're free.

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A different path Bumbry's unusual path to the major leagues, not arriving until 1972 at age 25, after a full tour of duty in Vietnam as a highly decorated infantry officer, is, in and of itself, a remarkable story. Miguel Gonzalez has one final chance to make a spring training impression Bumbry earned the Bronze Star for heroism during the war, was honorably discharged and then quickly began his ascent through the Orioles' minor league system by hitting .336 for Aberdeen of the Northern League. -- That's where the Aberdeen Proving Ground is where since 1917, the army made poison gas, for artillery shells. Hmmm. all this time I thought they were talking only about explosives. This probably explains why a past friend of mine, a Ph.D. is psychology worked there. He was very vague but he did studies on personal reactions to something, and he probably did other stuff.

No, I asked the latter question only, notarize my will, but you raise an interesting question and I want to know the answer too, so I called UPS several times -- that was where the woman was who seemed to know all about this -- and just got a recording that they were busy, call back. For anything to do with UPS. (Which is a franchise, it turns out.)

But today I called in the morning and the very person answered, And she said "It's still the will." and she doesn't do it.

And did I say before that the guy who did do it, he and his employee witnessed every page (not legally required but good practice. Otherwise bad people take out one page and put in one they like better) and he stamped every page with his notary stamp. He treated the will and the witness statement the same.

Even though she's an employee of UPS, they don't give her any insurance that notaries should have.

I asked how much she charged, $4 a signature, which she said was capped by law** and a will has only one signature, I guess the testator, not the witnesses, and it's not worth the risk of having to go to court for $4. OTOH, the guy I went to charges $65, so it's well worth it, and he owns the store or half of it so he doesn't lose money if he's not there. She didn't understand how he could charge that much since the law says $4. OTOH I only write a new will every 48 years so I'm ready to pay whatever they charge. (I wouldn't call it a premonition, but I think my luck may run out during this trip, so I wanted the will before I left.)

Back to the UPS woman, she said the only ones who make any money are the real estate notaries because lots of people are signing and I guess they sign more than once, (Even then, how many signatures could there be? The contract is signed alreddy, the transfer of deed, the mortgage. Is there anything else? 3 or 4 signaturs a piece, 8 signatures times 4 dollars, how is 32 dollars money?** It's more than 4, but....

The notary is supposed to be there from 11:30 to 6:30, Sat 11-2, so I called at 11:45