Good morning fellow Notaries.
I've been doing a lot of reading here and it seems like the best place on the web to get advice on the occasions I will need it. In return, I am willing to become an active member and help out where and whenever I can.
Currently, a woman has approached me and inquired about my ability to perform a POA on behalf of her husband who is currently incarcerated. His great-aunt has passed on, and she had named him beneficiary of her life-insurance policy. I have already spoken to the inmate who is willing to accept me as a visitor to perform the signing and grant the POA.
This will be my first POA in my 5 years as a commissioned Notary for the Commonwealth. I am very "green" on this procedure and all of the POA forms I find on the internet have been general "All or Nothing" type forms where the grantee has control of everything. I suppose the question raised is, can I draft a POA form where the grantee ONLY has POA on this specific policy and nothing else?
Any and all advice and/or procedural instructions are greatly appreciated.
The first thing you need to do is check with your SOS or with a reliable PA notary information source - are you, as a notary, authorized to provide the forms people need. In know here in FL there are certain forms we can provide but we cannot help them fill it out - we can only put in the form what they say to put in there - and we are not responsible for the proper execution of the form itself. It would be their responsibility to know how to sign it, how many witnesses are required if any at all, if notarization is required, if at all, and what type of notarization.
Few other points come to mind - (a) Will this inmate have proper ID? (b) Does the jail have their own notary? I know here in my county they do and we are not allowed to go in - the inmate must use the jail notary and arrangements are made internally - it's a security thing. (c) Also, check with the facility on their procedures for access - it may be restricted to certain times of the day or certain days of the week. (d) There may also be certain access protocol you need to follow to get TO the inmate. I've heard some notaries state "this is a 30 minutes job for me" and others have spent 3 hours at the jail waiting..and waiting..and waiting. (e) All of which lead to my next point - get all the details up front and charge accordingly.
Good Luck. Hope this works out for you.
Thank you Linda for your insight. I will heed your advice.
In know here in FL there are certain forms we can provide but we cannot help them fill it out - we can only put in the form what they say to put in there - and we are not responsible for the proper execution of the form itself.
In Oklahoma we can make comments, but we can't actually touch or write anything in the form. Just providing some reinforcement to what SREKANT9 stated below. However, if something looks illegal or disingenuous in nature, you have the right to inform the proper authorities.
