A notary public provides authentication of documents and other services relating to official documents. This includes witnessing signing over sensitive documents, asking for ID; ensuring signatures are authentic, administering oaths and affirmations, taking affidavits, and more. Your notary public may work out of a local office; provide mobile services to clients, or a combination of both. Risks of being a notary public include errors or mistakes made while providing notary services, legal liabilities in your office, and other miscellaneous business risks. Protect these risks with notary public insurance.
Types of Notary Public Insurance
Insuring your notary public business is vital to maintaining a successful company, as is taking steps to avoid pitfalls related to risks associated with this important business. There are different types of insurance policies for notary publics, many of which are listed below.
Notary Public General Liability Insurance
General liability insurance offers coverage for three main areas; products liability, premises liability, and completed operations. For a notary public, the completed operations and premises liability are of prime importance. If you perform notary public services from an office, you are risk of a lawsuit, for example, if your customer injures herself in your office, such as from a sharp edge on your countertop while they are getting something notarized. General liability insurance benefits you by protecting your business assets and by helping to cover legal costs and the cost of damage or loss your customer experienced.
Notary Public Property Insurance
If you perform notary public services from an office, you should also consider risks relating to your property and contents. Unforeseen events like natural disasters, extreme weather conditions, fire, or flood can cause significant damage to your property. This may keep you from your normal business operations and make a huge dent in your business assets. To avoid this, purchase a property insurance policy to get assistance in paying for any necessary repairs or replacing office equipment, furniture, or anything else destroyed during the event in question.
Notary Public Commercial Auto Insurance
Many notary publics also perform services as a mobile company, whereby the notary public visits various businesses or individuals for requested notary services. In this case, you should protect your company from vehicle accidents with a business auto insurance policy. Commercial auto insurance offers coverage from accidents such as bodily injury, property or car damage, along with other benefits like theft or vandalism.
Notary Public Errors and Omissions Insurance
Errors and omissions insurance, also known as professional liability insurance, is in place to protect your notary public business from any mistakes you might have made. As a notary public, a very minute error on paperwork could cause huge loss for your clients. If this was to happen, a lawsuit might soon follow. When selecting Errors and omissions insurance helps cover the legal costs and amounts you owe in damages, according to your policy details.
Notary Public Surety Bonds
Surety bonds, unlike other business insurance policies, are for protection of your clients rather than your own business. They provide a guarantee to your clients that you promise to complete the work as listed in the contract and you are liable for any damage or loss caused by not completing the notary services properly. This is important for notary publics due to the sensitive information you handle on a daily basis.
Notary Public Workers’ Compensation
If you have employees working for your notary public business, you should have worker’s compensation insurance. Worker’s comp provides coverage for employees who suffer a work-related injury, such as repetitive motion injury, or have an accident in the office. Their medical costs and treatments will be covered along with any lost income before they recover and return to work.
Notary Public Crime Insurance
Crime insurance is helpful to your notary public to protect it from crimes such as dishonest employee practices. You are at risk of an employee stealing or embezzling money from your company. If you have crime insurance when the event occurs, your loss will be covered by the insurance policy.
After working hard to build your business, you should be sure to protect it from any type of risk you might be exposed to. This is why it is recommended you get multiple notary public insurance policies for your business.
