Archive for category: News

In January 2023, the state legislature approved an additional $10 million to the Illinois Department of Financial and Professional Regulation (IDFPR) for a new licensing system, which was last upgraded in 1999. Secretary Mario Treto testified to the House Appropriations committee on the evening of February 22^nd that IDFPR is “currently in works of negotiating the contract” and “expending the $10 million within this fiscal year (June 2023)”

Beyond the initial state appropriation to implement the new licensing system, Secretary Treto did admit that fees collected from applicant users of the platform “are going to be the operational revenue for the licensing system.” For reference, Secretary Treto testified that the state agency’s minimum cost to offer the platform to the public “is one dollar per license type per month to be on the system.”

While Secretary Treto did not provide an estimated timeline for implementation of the new licensing system, he did state that “implementing the transition and migration onto the new system is going to be a three phased approach,” with healthcare professionals being the focus of “phase one.” The association will work to position the title industry for transition into the new licensing system as soon as possible.

Once implemented, Secretary Treto testified that they anticipate licenses will be processed in less than one week with full accessibility to the user in a dashboard platform to better understand the status of an application.

According to Secretary Treto, when he began in his position in April 2021, the average processing time for all professions under IDFPR was 10-12 weeks and is currently an average of 6-8 weeks. Secretary Treto did also note that of the 564 employees budgeted for IDFPR, there are 122 vacancies, but that they continue to work on more rapid response times as the new licensing system is being implemented.

Please email info@illinoislandtitle.org with any issues you have regarding title agent registrations.

The expected start of new notary journal requirements this month are being delayed up to three months.

Administrative rule staff officially filed objections this week to the Secretary of State’s proposed notary regulations, and the Secretary of State’s office has agreed to withdraw its rule-making to refile the latest version of proposed rules for further public comment and official state agency response.

Click here for the latest version of the proposed notary rules.

For background on the administrative rule process, click here for ILTA’s recent news summary.

For a summary of the administrative rule staff objection, click here or see below:

“JCAR objects to the Secretary of State rulemaking titled Notary Public Records (14 IAC 176; 46 Ill Reg 5874) because of serious technical errors and significant outstanding issues from commenters. 1 IAC 220.900(a)(2)(F) requires rulemakings to be free of serious technical errors, redundancies and grammatical or typographical errors that could affect the meaning of the rules. Furthermore, 1 Ill. Adm. Code 220.900(a)(3)(E) requires agencies to adequately respond to public comments concerning the rulemaking. Although the Secretary of State has worked with JCAR staff to address many of these concerns in the final version of the rule, making changes of this volume and complexity to a rulemaking without additional public review would circumvent a full public comment process. The Secretary of State has indicated its intent to withdraw this rulemaking and refile the latest agreed-upon version as a new rulemaking so that all interested parties have the opportunity to comment again.”

While the focus of the new notary regulations are on electronic notarization, please also note that Section 3-107 of the enacting legislation (Public Act 102-160) included new journal requirements for all notary public services.

***Effective Date***

These requirements go into effect “the date on which the Office of the Secretary of State files with the Index Department of the Office of the Secretary of State a notice that the Office of the Secretary of State has adopted the rules necessary to implement this Act, and upon the filing of the notice, the Index Department shall provide a copy of the notice to the Legislative Reference Bureau.”

Of note, the proposed rules are set for hearing on January 10th (click here for Joint Committee on Administrative Rules Agenda), with the Secretary of State’s office indicating its intentions to officially adopt the rules within a week of the JCAR hearing and at the latest, by the end of January.

ILTA has requested confirmation from the Secretary of State prior to the filing of its adopted rule notice, which will be disseminated to association members immediately.

***New Notary Journal Overview***

For reference, Section 3-107 of the enacting legislation (click here) authorizes the new journal requirements, and Subpart J of the proposed administrative rules (click here) contain the regulatory requirements for this new requirement.

• New journal requirements apply to all Illinois notaries, see Sec. 176.900(a)(1)
• All journals must contain, see Sec. 176.900(a)(2):
  • Name of notary public;
  • Commission number
  • Commission expiration date
  • Office address of record
  • Confirming statement that in the event of death, journal to IL SOS
  • Define uncommon abbreviations or symbols
  • Notary’s signature
• Required journal entries, see Sec. 176.910(b)
  • Name of principle
  • Name of each witness
  • Name of any other person signing for principal
  • Title or description of document notarized
  • Date of notarization
  • Whether in person, remotely, or electronically
  • Fee charged, if any
  • Physical location of notary and the principal
• Prohibited journal entries, see Sec. 176.910(d)
  • Identification numbers (e.g. ID# or social security number)
  • Biometric identifier (e.g. fingerprint)
  • Financial account information
• Electronic journals must be secure, unalterable or deletable, securely backed-up, see Sec. 176.900(c)

***Additional Reference Links***

• Administrative Rule First Notice (April 15, 2022, see page 5874)
• ILTA First Notice Public Comments (May 30, 2022 & July 7, 2022)
• Secretary of State Response to ILTA First Notice Public Comment (click here)
• Secretary of State Response to All Public Comments (click here)
• Administrative Rule Second Notice (November 14, 2022)

On November 9th, ILTA received official responses from the Secretary of State regarding our public comments to their proposed April 2022 remote notary regulations.

The Joint Committee on Administrative Rules (JCAR) that will be reviewing the Secretary of State’s proposed rules also confirmed there were around 850 changes made to the initially proposed rules by the Secretary of State in response to public comments.

The complete changes should be officially published in the next week and considered for JCAR approval on December 13th.

Click here for the Secretary of State’s official responses to ILTA’s public comments.

***UPDATE***

Click here for the Second Notice text of all changes made by the Secretary of State to the initially published First Notice rules.

Click here to register for the ILTA Remote Notary Working Group meeting on December 2nd.

Publication of final amendments to the proposed April 2022 remote notary regulations have been delayed, but approval of regulations is still expected in December or January. Please note that even with eventual approval of regulations by the Joint Committee on Administrative Rules (JCAR), subsequent approval of vendor platforms and notary education programs by the Secretary of State will likely take several months.

• April 15, 2022 – Secretary of State’s office files First Notice of proposed regulations, which opened a 45 day period for public comment to the Secretary of State’s office (see page 5 of the Flinn Report for a summary of the proposed rules and see page 5874 of the Illinois Register for the full filing);
• May 30, 2022 – Illinois Land Title Association submits public comment to Secretary of State, click here;
• July 7, 2022 – Illinois Land Title Association submits public comment addendum to Secretary of State, click here;
• First Notice Public Comment Period – over 150 public comments submitted to the Secretary of State from various interest groups;
• November 11 or 18, 2022 – anticipated Second Notice publication, which opens a period for review and public comment directly to JCAR (note: changes are expected to the First Notice proposed rules; once Second Notice is filed, no further changes may be made to a proposed rulemaking unless agreed to by both JCAR and the Secretary of State’s office);
• December 13, 2022 or January 17, 2023 – anticipated JCAR meeting for final action (note: if JCAR has no objection, the Secretary of State’s office may adopt the rulemaking with any Second Notice changes, which is filed as a Notice of Adopted Rules/Amendments in a subsequent, weekly Illinois Register publication.

***Remote Notary Laws Already in Effect – Notary Commissions***

While many aspects of the remote notary legislation signed into law last summer as Public Act 102-160 are not yet in effect due to ongoing rulemaking (note: this includes new journal requirements not yet in effect), changes to the notary certification process are in effect as of July 1, 2022.

More specifically, the appointment of the applicant as a notary public no longer needs recorded with a county clerk pursuant to the repealed Section 2-106 by Public Act 102-160. The Secretary of State’s office confirmed:

• the last of the Commission Certificates to be processed by counties (June 30, 2022 or earlier) were mailed out by the Secretary of State’s office to counties the first week of July 2022; and
• Commission Certificates issued (i.e. “In Testimony” date July 1st or later) are being mailed directly to the Notaries Public.

***Other Laws & Regulations of Interest***

At the end of July 2022, the U.S. House of Representatives passed the SECURE Notarization Act for immediate nationwide use of remote online notarization, which provides for national standards and legal certainty of interstate transactions. As an American Land Title Association initiative, you can click here to join the Title Action Network advocacy in favor of the U.S. Senate moving forward with the legislation.

Also, click here for ILTA’s May 2022 news post that includes additional state and federal regulations of interest.