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crtowles
California
553 Posts |
 Posted - 04/30/2009 : 8:05:53 PM
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Hi rpvnotary,
Most of use have been where you were. Renee gave you some excellent advise but I personally don't think you did anything wrong. It s NOT your job to go over a persons trust. It sounds to me like the loan officer wanted you to do her job. I am sure the trust must have been prepared by an attorney and/or title and they should have made sure that the borrower understood this document. Sometimes these loan officers are soooo desperate that they make fools of themselves in the process. Just keep your head up and stay calm. I think you handled yourself very well.
Good Luck!
Carmen |
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rpvnotary
California
13 Posts |
Posted - 04/29/2009 : 6:12:09 PM
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| Thank you for your help and advice, Renee |
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Renee
Michigan
549 Posts |
Posted - 04/27/2009 : 04:21:58 AM
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Whew, there's quite a few questions in your post, but I'll see if I can address them.
First, if you are (as your post seems to illustrate) uncomfortable with your level of knowledge of loan documents, then you should continue your education by whatever method suits you best. My personal opinion is that everyone should present themselves clearly and appropriately - if you advertise yourself as only a mobile notary, then that's all anyone can/should expect. If you advertise yourself as a loan signing agent, if you make claims of being experienced with loan documents, etc - then clients should be able to EXPECT that of you.
Learn enough about the definition of UPL to find the line between 'practicing law without a license' and 'explaining loan documents'. Yes, you CAN provide signers with information about what the heck they are signing, without getting near the UPL line. If you're advertising that you know this line, then you'd best deliver.
When you encounter something new to you that you don't clearly understand, remember that "I don't know, but I'll find out" IS a valid answer! Far better to be forthright than to ever guess. Every time you encounter something new - learn what you can about it, and it gets added to your 'data bank'. Knowledge & experience are cumulative.
A Certificate of Trust would, in a perfect world, be completed by the title agent prior to close. It's not a perfect world though, eh? When the property is held in a Trust, the Certificate provides all the specifics about that Trust as a reference, and that Cert will be recorded with the mortgage. In simple words - the Trust owns the property, the Trustee is the person authorized to sign FOR the Trust, and this Certificate of Trust lays out the specifics (what trust, type of trust, who's the trustee, what property is held, etc). Rather than always recording the whole Trust over and over, they use this one/two page Certificate - in essence it's saying "This person has the authority to sign as Trustee for this Trust, and this Trust allows for this transaction."
All the info needed for the Cert of Trust is ON the actual Trust document (which the title agent would have a copy of, from record) - if the signer can't find a copy of his own Trust to get the answers, and doesn't KNOW those answers (the name of the trust, who the trustees are, etc)then you have few options:
1) Call the title agent for the necessary info
2) Have the signer place "TBD" in small letters in each blank field IF he chooses to do that, to enable you to notarize without "blanks" (since you're in CA) or
3) If you're in a state that allows it, and the signer has no issue, you can simply leave the fields for the title agent to complete.
Now, that having been said - any time you get ANY kind of complaint, really consider it for the future, as a complaint is often a valuable indicator of how you or your services or business plan can be improved. In other words - if we only listen to 'praise', we would never push ourselves towards being better. |
Edited by - Renee on 04/27/2009 04:24:39 AM |
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rpvnotary
California
13 Posts |
Posted - 04/26/2009 : 5:11:39 PM
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Recently I had a signing where one of the documents I presented to the borrowwer was the certification of trust. It asks for specific information regarding the borrowers' trust in the case of a loan which will be held in the family trust. I identified the document to him and figured it was straightforward what he should do with it. It asked questions like is the trust revocable or irrevocable. He was upset that I didn't hold his hand and tell him what to put in there ( I am not the attorney who wrote up the terms of his trust). He called his loan officer, spoke for awhile, then had the loan officer talk to me.
The loan officer grilled me asking" What is that document?". I said it was a document asking for information about the borrower's family trust, and that it was asking for things like what type of trust do the borrowers have?, Is it revocable or irrevocable?. She felt I was not adequately explaining the document, saying "You should be explaining the document. You're not doing your job. Are you working for the title company?" When she asked about whether I was working for the title company I had the feeling she wasnted to report me as incompetent and recommend that I be placed on a Do Not Use list. She later said I didn't know what I was doing. Very condescending. If I wanted to be unprofessional, I would have called her a few nasty names, but I refrained form doing so. Almost wanted to say she wasn't doing HER job of thoroughly explaining the terms of the loan with the borrower if he's expecting me to hold his hand.
I told her I could not go into detail explaining it because I feel it would be going into the area of UPL. But she still felt like I was an incompetent idiot that should not be in this line of work.
Another borrower I asked me about how to fill out the same type of document. I looked at it and told her I felt I would be going into someplace I shouldn't be going into (UPL) and she was OK about that.
Just what do they think we signing agents are? What I understand is that we are basically there to identify and give very basic descriptions of the documents at hand. Our main function is to make sure that the documents are signed and notarized properly, isn't it?
On another website I read about someone who got a title company ticked off for supposedly not explaining documents to a borrower and they wrote to the signing company that hired her that she should be placed on their Do Not Use list.
I've had a few, not many complaints about supposedly not explaining documents to borrowers and wonder if I should take a refresher loan signing course. I will add that most borrowers have nothing to complain about my service and one even ran into me at the supermarket later on and told me she was pleased with my part in the process of getting her home refinanced. |
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How far should we go in explaining documents ?
