Remote Notary Regulations Public Comment

On April 15th, the Secretary of State filed their First Notice of proposed regulations, which opened a 45 day period for public comment. 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.

For background, remote notary legislation was signed into law last summer as Public Act 102-160, and most aspects of the new law are effective the later of January 1, 2022 or implementation of administrative rules by the Secretary of State.

Following joint ILTA committee working group (Agents, Title Counsel, Legislative) meetings, draft public comments have been prepared to provide the Secretary of State an assessment on several areas of interest to the title industry prior to June 1st.

Click here for the ILTA public comment.

Other Laws & Regulations of Interest

Another bill relevant to at least “remote ink notarization” was also signed into law last summer as Public Act 102-167. In particular, title practitioners and legal counsels may want to be familiar with Section 15-20 regarding “[r]emote witnessing and notarization during the COVID-19 emergency declaration,” and also Section 15-5 regarding the remote witnessing of documents other than wills.

Further assurances were also provided in Illinois law last summer regarding remote notarizations in other states through Public Act 102-500, which clarified that acknowledging someone’s appearance for a notary includes “in a manner prescribed by the laws or regulations applicable in the place in which the acknowledgment is taken.”

And although Illinois has set standards for remote ink notarization that does not include multi-factor authentication, please note guidance released last summer by Freddie Mac with a multi-factor authentication requirement. Click here for more guidance details from Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, and be sure to check out the evolving MISMO standards.