Resources > Glossary > Initial

Glossary of Notary Public, Mortgage, Signing Agent, and Loan Signing Terms.

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Initial

Function: verb

Many loan packages have documents that must be initialed by the signer. Additionally, it is common for the notary and signers to be required to initial changes to dates on the Right to Cancel including the transaction date and the last date to cancel. Initialing is a common procedure if a change in the name variation must occur. The borrower should ideally inital below the last several letters of the typed last name, and then sign the way the different name variation is signed. The loan processor can then retype the correct name once its initialed. Many lenders would prefer to redraw documents rather than have cross-outs, initials, or other changes which jeapardize the lender's ability to sell the loan to a third party.

The Deed of Trust is a document that is commonly initialed at the bottom of each page. Its just a precaution to make sure that the borrower read each page, and to prevent pages from being swapped after the fact.

Unfortunately, we have heard that it is not uncommon for Title companies to forge the initial of a signer if the signer forgot to do so, to save time if they need to process a loan in a hurry.

Sometimes it is confusing how to initial if the person has a long name. If the person's name is John F Denver Jr., then the initial should be JFD Jr. Initialing during attorney in fact signings are particularly confusing as they must sometimes initial for themselves in addition to the person they are attorney in fact for.