The Commonwealth of Massachusetts recently became the 43rd state to pass legislation authorizing remote online notarization (RON).
Signed into law by Governor Maura Healey and effective on January 1, 2024, the legislation expands access “to online notarization — and the Notarize platform — to all notaries across the Commonwealth.”
Notarize extends its gratitude “to Governor Healey, Senate President Karen Spilka, House Speaker Ronald Mariano, Chairman Michael Rodrigues, Chairman Aaron Michlewitz, Chairman James Eldridge, Chairman Michael Day, Senator Brendan Crighton, Representative Carmine Gentile, Senator Joan Lovely, Senator Barry Finegold, and the entire General Court of the Commonwealth for their efforts to bring online notarization — and the opportunities that come with it — to the hard-working notaries commissioned within the state.”
While the company celebrates the legislation’s passage as a major achievement — and monumental step forward for the modernization of the real estate industry — in its own right, the firm considers the milestone “to be special given it’s the state in which Notarize was founded.”
Better yet, it’s a result “that stems directly from several years of tireless collaboration amongst a diverse coalition of stakeholders, including our valued partners at the Real Estate Bar Association of Massachusetts, Massachusetts Mortgage Bankers Association, Massachusetts Bankers Association, the Massachusetts Credit Union Association, the Life Insurance Association of Massachusetts, Digital Federal Credit Union, and the Connecticut Attorneys Title Insurance Company.”
With this legislation being signed into law, Massachusetts “becomes the first ever state to enact a comprehensive online notarization proposal that preserves the role of the attorney in a remote real estate closing process.”
Historically speaking, the Notarize for Real Estate platform has “not been able to support closings for properties located within the Commonwealth because of a pre-existing requirement that an attorney both direct the closing and ensure that non-attorney notaries are not engaging in the unauthorized practice of law.”
As a result of their extensive advocacy efforts — “especially those in which we partnered with the Massachusetts Mortgage Bankers Association (MMBA) and the Real Estate Bar Association (REBA) — this legislation effectively digitizes the existing closing process in Massachusetts while maintaining the integrity and central role of the attorney, as mandated by the Supreme Judicial Court.”
Notarize claims it “has worked for years to design a legislative solution that would offer closing attorneys nationwide the ability to process closings fully remotely.”
With this recent development, they now “have an official legislative model that can be applied across the country for all remaining attorney-closing states yet to enact online notarization.”
As noted in the update, the law will “become effective on January 1, 2024, and will require the Secretary of the Commonwealth to establish new regulations and processes for notaries.”
They encourage you “to keep a close eye on this page for more information as it becomes available throughout the year ahead.”
In the meantime, the team is pleased that their home state “has joined the ranks of so many others in providing access to online notarization.”
Notarize says it knows that their best — and most important work — is yet to come, and they look forward “to continuing to partner with the Commonwealth for years to come.”