Career of the Day: Notary Public

Boy, this looked so easy when I watched other people do it. It is essentially easy, but with many rules behind it. Essentially I'm a professional witness. When I am asked to notarize a document, I need to ascertain many things, i.e., is the person signing of sound enough mind to know what they are signing, do they understand it, are they signing it willingly, are they who they say they are? I've primarily notarized estate planning documents, and the people involved are all too happy to get this part of their lives squared away, so it's usually smooth sailing. Unfortunately, dying is a lot more complicated these days, so for a married couple I'll end up notarizing 14-18 documents by the time I'm done, and it takes a couple of hours.