—Update (2/12/2021): RON update: First new remote online notarization law of 2021 passes
—Update (6/26/2020): RON update: Remote online notarization sees forward momentum—and a setback

With most people currently unable or unwilling to leave their homes, the ability to conduct remote online notarizations (RON) has become more necessary than ever—and state and federal officials are taking note.

Since the start of the COVID-19 outbreak, at least 27 states have taken steps to enable remote online notarizations, bringing the total number of states that presently authorize some form of RON—either through existing law or emergency action—to 42.

Some of the states that now allow RON via emergency action previously hadn’t permitted any form of eNotarization at all. Others had RON laws on the books that would have taken effect later this year, but those states opted to enable RON immediately instead of waiting. Some of the laws are limited in scope.

On top of that, a federal bill was proposed that would allow the practice nationwide.

To learn more about RON, including how to get started, sign up for a DocMagic webinar on April 29.

The flurry of action allows for much-needed notary services to continue at a time when notaries and signers need to maintain social distancing.

Since Virginia became the first state to allow it in 2011, RON has been a game changer in the mortgage industry. Remote online notarizations are simply more convenient, compliant, and secure. Additionally, RON integrates with DocMagic’s Total eClose™ platform to facilitate a 100 percent paperless eClosing.

Before the pandemic, most states already allowed eNotarizations, in which electronic documents are signed with an electronic signature. But in many cases, the signer still needed to physically appear before a notary (known as in-person eNotarization, or IPEN).

Not so with RON, which allows notaries and signers to complete an eNotarization by meeting in a virtual environment using audiovisual technology.

The momentum for RON had been growing even before the COVID-19 outbreak. In Florida, where RON has been in place since Jan. 1, DocMagic’s partner NotaryCam announced it saw a 100 percent month-over-month increase in RON closings.

In the early months of this year, record-low mortgage rates led to an uptick in lending action; according to CNBC, refinance applications were up more than 400 percent annually. Many of these moves would have been in limbo after the “shelter in place” orders came down if not for the increased access to RON.

Additionally, on March 18, U.S. Sens. Kevin Cramer (R-N.D.) and Mark Warner (D-Va.) proposed a bill to allow all licensed notaries in the country to perform RON, though the legislation still has a long road before passage becomes a reality.

Much of the recent action is temporary. Many states including Maine, Mississippi, and New Jersey, for example, are only allowing RON for the duration of the coronavirus emergency.

However, as the country reopens in a piecemeal manner, several of the states that temporarily increased RON access will likely consider making those changes permanent—especially after they see the benefits.

Related Content:

• DocMagic and NotaryCam Integrate to Eliminate Reliance on In-Person Notarizations for Paperless eClosings (9/8/2018)

eClosing just got a lot easier because DocMagic’s new AutoPrep technology can convert ANY document from ANY lender into a compliant e-enabled document that’s ready for electronic signature inside our eClosing platform.

One of the drivers behind the development of AutoPrep was a 2019 independent technology survey of the mortgage industry conducted by STRATMOR. It ranked DocMagic’s Total eClose™ solution as the No. 1 eClosing platform for market share, overall satisfaction, and Lender Loyalty Score®. 

We felt that it was critical for us to be able to work with any lender to ingest any document—and that’s exactly what AutoPrep does, allowing our Total eClose™ platform to accept documents, even non-e-enabled documents, from any source.

How does AutoPrep work?

This technology can transform any standard document or PDF, even partially e-enabled ones, into a fully e-enabled document in seconds. It uses artificial intelligence, OCR, and machine learning technologies to scan and parse documents, locate all signature and notary regions, and then electronically tag them for eClosing. As a result, lenders can use loan documents produced by virtually any document provider with our Total eClose™ platform.

AutoPrep can also:

• Learn the nuances of specific documents and adjust accordingly going forward.
• Identify whether signatures are improperly placed or missing.
• Find e-tags placed by other providers.
• Read documents that have been partially, but not fully, converted into e-enabled documents.

In addition, AutoPrep can identify situations that are outside the norm and flag documents for personnel, saving them the time and trouble of having to comb over every page of a document package.

While eClosings are known to be more efficient and compliant, they aren’t nearly as common in the mortgage industry as they should be. One reason is because some lenders are tied to systems that don’t produce e-enabled documents. With AutoPrep, we’re pleased to say that roadblock is removed.

To our valued clients and partners,

During these unprecedented times, I wanted to personally reach out to you to address DocMagic’s approach to the evolving state of the coronavirus (COVID-19) and the growing challenges that face our nation.

First and foremost, our hearts go out to all those who have been or are being affected by the outbreak of COVID-19.  

DocMagic has always placed the needs of our clients and employees first.  As we learn more about the spread of COVID-19 in our communities, we want to keep you informed of what DocMagic is doing to protect our employees and to provide the highest quality and most reliable service to our national clientele in a smarter and safer way.

We want to assure you that all of our services are fully operational and remain available 24/7. 

Here is what we are doing:

• We have activated our pandemic and business continuity plans which are overseen by our Risk Management Committee to help us continue to meet customer support service levels and we continue to work tirelessly to ensure there are no service interruptions. We regularly evaluate, test, and validate these plans.
  
  
• We have temporarily suspended all customer and partner visits to our offices and suspended business travel for all employees. Our national headquarters and print fulfillment center are effectively on lock-down.
  
  
• We are operating in a "business as usual" mode in order to maintain a consistent service level for our clients, however, we are using proactive and seamless measures to identify and transition staff members who can work remotely to combat potential exposure and spread for clients and employees alike.
  
  
• We are supporting our employees by encouraging them to work remotely if they are symptomatic or suspect they have been exposed - assuring them that they will not lose any wages. Not only do we believe that this is the right thing to do, we believe that such a step encourages our employees to continue to deliver the same outstanding level of service to our clients that DocMagic is known for. 

We’re here for you:

We remain steadfast in our support and will continue to closely monitor the situation and employ any additional measures as needed.  If you have any questions, please feel free to reach out to your account specialists or support representatives.  It is at times like these that consistent, factual communication is critical to success.  From our DocMagic family to yours, we are here for you and will keep you informed of any service or status updates promptly. 

Thank you for being a valued client and partner and please do not hesitate to reach out to us.

Warmest regards,

Dominic Iannitti
President & CEO

DocMagic is the Document Preparation market share leader, with 37.6 percent of the market comprised of banks, credit unions, and independent mortgage bankers according to STRATMOR Group’s 2019 Technology Insight Study.

A Document Library of 200,000 Forms and Counting!

DocMagic's massive Document Library is comprised of compliant forms and documents that meet almost every customer and industry need. By combining our Document Library with several different form-generation technologies we have developed and perfected in our 30+ years, we can implement forms and documents so that they behave identically throughout all the solutions we provide to our clients.

How do we maintain such a large Document Library?

Since 1987, we have amassed a library of over 200,000 compliant forms and documents ready to be implemented for our customers. These documents include thousands of existing forms along with the many forms we customize to fit a client’s specific needs. As we update and customize forms, we preserve all iterations of form changes that have been implemented so they're ready to be re-used as needed. 

With such a large number of forms, we’ve even developed an in-house tool—our Forms Analyzer—that indexes form content to make search queries for specific content. This allows us to quickly determine whether or not a customer will need an existing form or if they require us to customize a form for their specific use. We'd be surprised to see a document generation solution with a larger and more organized archive then we have today.

Keeping forms and documents compliant

Our years of experience in the industry have given us the time to develop a very efficient process to develop and release compliant documents and forms into production.

1. We use our Forms Analyzer to search through our document library and determine whether the form you need is a custom form or an existing form.
2. Then we determine whether the template and/or programming of that form needs to be modified for your specific use.
3. If a template needs to be updated, it is sent to our Forms Layout Team where they make the necessary changes before passing the work onto our Forms Programming Team.
4. If just the programming needs to be updated, the template is sent directly to Forms Programming where it's tested for performance assurance.
5. Forms programming then releases the form for further testing by our internal teams and/or the customer to ensure quality and complete satisfaction.
6. Once approved, Forms Programming will release the form into production for customer use.

All the forms in our standard library are backed by our reps and warrants to protect our customers. From Model Forms to Custom Forms—the Compliance Team meticulously scrutinizes all forms to ensure compliance with current mortgage laws and regulations. 

Forms flexible enough to fit our client's needs

Our processes for generating custom forms allow us the flexibility to handle specific requests from our customers. DocMagic can support your needs quickly and compliantly with:

1. Static templates
2. Fully dynamic templates (like the Loan Estimate or Closing Disclosure)
3. Hybrid forms
4. Forms in full color
5. Real signature images
6. Logo customization
7. And more...

Choose the industry leader in Document Generation! Schedule a Demo today.

TORRANCE, Calif., Nov. 5, 2019—DocMagic, Inc., the premier provider of fully-compliant loan document preparation, regulatory compliance and comprehensive eMortgage services, announced that its Total eClose™ platform is the eClosing leader based on market share, overall satisfaction and lender loyalty in STRATMOR Group’s 2019 Mortgage Technology Insight Study.

“STRATMOR’s study places DocMagic as the eClosing leader, with more than 52.4 percent of the market comprised of banks, credit unions, and independent mortgage bankers,” said Dominic Iannitti, president and CEO of DocMagic. “We’re thrilled to have our customers rank us so highly in a study by an organization as reliable and respected as STRATMOR.”

DocMagic also led eClosing providers in overall satisfaction ratings and STRATMOR’s coveted Lender Loyalty Score® analysis, which the study states is based on lender satisfaction and intent to continue using the technology.

A second DocMagic technology, the company’s document generation solution, also holds the highest market share in its category. Together, Total eClose and DocMagic’s dynamic document generation can provide lenders with 100 percent paperless eClosings.

According to STRATMOR Group, this year’s study was based on responses from 250 mortgage professionals representing 209 unique lenders. The 2019 survey represents 29 percent of the mortgage market and draws in part upon 2017 HMDA data to maximize accuracy. STRATMOR defines eClosing technology as a system that allows lenders to deliver fully digital and also hybrid eClosings through a central platform. STRATMOR concluded that “eClosing represents a significant ROI opportunity for lenders to automate.”

DocMagic’s Total eClose platform is a comprehensive solution that delivers a completely paperless workflow and seamlessly integrates every component of the closing process. It includes a robust eDocument library with integrated eSign technology; the MISMO Category One SMARTDoc® eNote; eNotary technology for all 50 states; direct connectivity to the MERS® eRegistry; GSE-certified eVault storage for one year; secure and compliant investor delivery; and a complete audit trail for proof of compliance.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                Persons interested in learning more about the industry’s leading eClosing platform can contact sales@docmagic.com.

About STRATMOR Group:

Founded in 1985, STRATMOR Group has, since inception, focused exclusively on making the mortgage business better for lenders and the borrowers they serve. Today, STRATMOR is a data-driven advisory that guides lenders and vendor clients alike to make smart strategic decisions, solve complex challenges, streamline operations, improve profitability and accelerate growth. For more information, visit https://www.stratmorgroup.com/.