Notary Public Insurance

A notary bond is a state-required surety bond that is generally intended to protect the public from financial harm caused by an improper notarization — but the bond requires the notary to repay the surety. Notary Errors & Omissions (E&O) insurance — also known as professional liability insurance — is generally intended to protect the notary against allegations of error, omission, or unauthorized act. Most working notaries carry both.

For notaries the terms are used interchangeably. Both "notary professional liability" and "notary E&O" generally refer to the same coverage: protection against allegations arising from your notarial duties.

No, and this is the single most common misunderstanding in the trade. Some states require a bond as a condition of commissioning, others require none at all, and the required amount varies widely among those that do. Bond sellers frequently market bonds in states that do not require them. Check your state commissioning authority before buying anything, and see our state surety bond pages for what we have been able to verify.

An employer policy is written to protect the employer. If a claim names you personally, or if you notarize anything outside the scope of that job, the employer policy is generally not built to answer for you. Notaries who also do side work, loan signings, or mobile appointments are the ones this catches out most often.

Same coverage type, usually different limits. A routine acknowledgment carries modest exposure. A loan signing package moves real money and is scrutinized closely if anything goes wrong, so signing services and title companies often require higher E&O limits than a notary would otherwise buy, and they will ask for the certificate before assigning work.

RON is authorized in a growing number of states, each with its own registration process, approved technology vendors, and record retention rules. Some states that require no bond for a traditional commission do require one for electronic notaries, so confirm both separately. Disclose RON work when you request coverage, because it is not automatically assumed.

Considerably. A contemporaneous journal entry showing what identification you inspected and what the signer acknowledged is frequently the strongest evidence available in a disputed notarization. Some states require one, and several that do not still recommend it. It does not replace coverage, but its absence tends to make a claim harder to defend.