On April 9, 2020, Governor Abbott suspended the requirement that notaries be physically present when witnessing signatures. Now the notary can view the signature through video conferencing and then notarize the signed documents later. We’ve updated our online estate planning process accordingly as explained in this video by Attorney John Perches. Call or text 800-929-1725 to create or update your estate plan from the safety of your home.
Summary of Our Online Video Notarization for Estate Planning
Hi, I’m John Perches. And I recently posted a video regarding certain innovations that we’ve begun using here at Wadler, Perches, Hundl and Kerlick that allow our clients the ability to conduct the entire estate planning process from start to finish without ever having to leave their homes.
As discussed in the prior video, the process begins with a phone or video conference with one of our lawyers followed by our clients using an online client portal that will generate the estate planning documents ready for lawyer review and editing in a fraction of the time that it used to take us. Until today, the final step was to schedule the signing by means of a mobile notary who would come to our client’s homes to notarize the signing of all documents.
I’m excited to share with you the news that today, April the 9th, Governor Abbott has suspended the requirement that notaries be physically present with those whose signature the notary public notarizes, and instead, allows for notarizations to occur through video conferencing such as Zoom or GoToMeeting. In response, our firm has suspended the use of mobile notaries and are handling all estate planning signings remotely using video conferencing in an effort to keep everyone safer.
Our process now will be that once the client’s estate planning documents are in final form and ready for signing, the documents will be overnighted to the clients and the video conferencing signing will follow. The client will then overnight the original wet ink documents back to the firm where they will be notarized, scanned and emailed back to the client. Click this link below to view Governor Abbott’s press release and stay safe.
