One could argue that the original Notary Public’s were the ancient Egyptians tasked with scribing referred to as “sesh”. However, “Notary Publics” took their full form and held an essential role in society across the Mediterranean Sea in the Roman parliament. Back then, all meetings had to take place in person due to a lack of technology. So Notaries were required to be at the place of a signing for the signing to legally take place.
For over 1000 years up until just the last decade, the same rules applied for most of the United States. Now, things are about to change.
A Remote Online Notarization bill being passed in the House last week has the potential to clear the way for RON to finally be legal in all 50 states (including D.C.).
RON technology allows for legal documents to be notarized wherever and whenever via mobile, tablet, or computer. With new remote online notary software, businesses, firms, or title agencies can offer their clients and signees more convenience and speed than they could in the past. How else does Remote Online Notarization make things different?
The General Definition:
We can start with what it is exactly.
For the legal definitions from the Notarization Act working its way through Congress right now, you can check out the official bill from congress.
A general non legal definition might be that RON is notarization of a signature using videoconferencing through an approved platform. Of course, there’s lots of specific requirements, but it must be a platform that allows the Notary and the signer to appear before each other at the time of the notarization using secure audio-visual technology over the internet.
There’s a few benefits to using this kind of RON software.
Video Storage:
In addition to all RON meetings requiring video/audio communication, they also require storage of these video conferences for 10 years. This feature adds a layer of validation that just isn’t there long term when you conduct notarizations in person. The recording may be downloaded at any time by signer or notary if the Platform allows them (BlueNotary does). It’s just one more layer of integrity that you can provide for one’s client and legal.
Security:
Security is one of the other ways in which RON can be superior to in person Notarization. RON uses Two-Part Identity Verification as well as of course the meeting with the Notary in and of itself.
The first part is done with Knowledge Based Authentication (KBA), while the second part is done by checking government ID’s against global issuing and other authoritative databases.
If both of these tests are passed, the signer is then allowed into a room where a Notary Public will check their ID’s once more to be extra thorough. Then they go through the digital signing together, while software encrypts and keeps track of every step of the way.
As the entire process is documented and recorded, you’ll never have to second guess the specifics of anything that occurred in your signing session. RON software does the job of documentation and protection of data so that you don’t have to. You can focus on what you need to get done and let the software worry about the rest.
What Industries use RON?
This new and evolving RON technology impacts almost every single industry.
It’s important to realize these are legally commissioned documents with power in court of law. They are essential for law proceedings and therefore essential for civil society. Here’s a short list of industries that RON technology has an impact on:
-Finance Systems
-Governments
-Human Resources
-Real Estate
-Health and Sciences
-Construction
-Legal Industry
-Medical Industry
-Manufacturing
-Military Personnel
-Digital Currencies/Crypto
-And many more…
It is no short list in quantity, nor in economic factor. These are some of the largest and most competitive industries in the world.
How do these industries use RON?
Here’s another short of list of how RON is already affecting these industries:
- RON makes it easier for Real Estate Title Companies to get their clients signed the fastest.
- Online Notarization helps citizens and the military take care of government documents easier.
- RON helps builders process legal documents with lenders faster.
- RON helps everybody involved be more secure and organized.
- Remote Notarization allows individual notaries to create shops on the internet and make money without having to drive through the rain and account for gas or extra time.
- Good RON software is making record keeping simple and automatic.
This list goes on and on.
Remote Online Notary Technology is leaving its footprints on the entire landscape of how transactions and proofing is done. It doesn’t even stop at the border, as notarizations can still take place with the signer out of the country easier than ever.
Same Old Notarization, a few New Tricks
Notarization is still notarization, so RON isn’t a complete paradigm shift. But it is catching up with the times and catching up to the rest of the 21st century.
Secure audio-visual technology has realistically been possible sooner than the year 2020. In the United States, It has been legal in the State of Virginia since July 1st, 2011. However, the RON development scene really only took off post covid. As did many other remote technologies.
It is often mentioned that 1 billion notarizations are processed in the United States every year. Obviously, more and more of these are going to be moving online for record keeping purposes alone. This doesn’t even mention the incredible amount of time that is saved both per transaction/notarization and on turnaround.
Remote Online Notarization Adoption Curve
When certain technologies of sufficient importance are invented and start growing, these inventions historically take on what is known as an “S-shaped adoption curve.” Here is a chart with an example of other technologies that were adopted along this curve. Do you think Remote Online Notary could have this kind of a technological effect on the insurance or law industries?
Of course, we are not suggesting that 100% of notarizations are going to immediately move online to match these S-curves. But it is certain that a significant portion of the market will continue to move online.
This much is evidenced by Title Company and Mortgage Industry support (MBA and ATLA) for the new SECURE Notarization Act of 2022.
And if you are a company and you see a chart like this, it is pertinent to be an early adopter in the industry rather than a lagging party. You don’t want to miss out on deals because your old process is too slow.
With virtual notarization, deals just get done faster.
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