Paper Doll
A New VIP: A Form You Didn’t Know You Needed
Brown Plush Bear Patient Photo by Kristine Wook on Unsplash
As a professional organizer for 20 years, I am rarely stumped by organizing-related questions, especially those having to do with vital documents or what I call VIPs (very important papers). However, a client recently presented me with an article making a recommendation for a particular document, and it sent me down a rabbit hole of research.
THE USUAL SUSPECTS: VIPS AND HOW TO MAINTAIN THEM
Over the past years, we’ve discussed (at length) the essential documents everyone should have and how to organize and keep them safe. Posts covering these topics have included:
How to Create, Organize, and Safeguard 5 Essential Legal and Estate Documents
The Professor and Mary Ann: 8 Other Essential Documents You Need To Create
Ask Paper Doll: Do I Really Need A Safe Deposit Box?
Paper Doll’s Ultimate Guide to Getting a Document Notarized
Over the years, we’ve looked at documents granted by a government entity, like birth and marriage certificates, divorce decrees and custody documents, citizenship and military separation papers, passports, and Social Security cards.
We’ve also reviewed essential documents you must create for yourself (or with assistance), including home inventories, insurance policies, estate planning documents (like wills and trusts, pre- and post-nuptial agreements), and living wills (also known as advanced medical directives).
And, for ensuring that your loved ones can take care of you (and you can take care of them) in the event of incapacitation, we have always accented the importance of having both a Durable Power of Attorney for finances and Durable Power of Attorney for healthcare (known in some states as a healthcare proxy).
BEHOLD: THE POWER OF ATTORNEY
A Durable Power of Attorney for financial decisions is necessary if you are unable to make financial decisions or take financial actions on your own. This might occur if you are ill and lack the cognitive capacity to make your own decisions (such as if you’re comatose, heavily medicated, or experiencing some sort of dementia), but it might also come in handy in other circumstances.
Imagine that you are taking an around-the-world cruise or hiking in the Himalayas. In such cases, communication may be spotty or impossible. If the stock market were tanking or a financial opportunity of great importance occurred, or if your return were delayed and you needed to make sure your child’s college tuition was paid or some other financial arrangement was secured, knowing that someone with your Power of Attorney for financial concerns was handling everything would certainly put your mind at ease.
A Durable Power of Attorney for healthcare, or a healthcare proxy, is similarly important if you are unable to make your own healthcare decisions, pretty much for the same reasons initially outlined. If you are physically or cognitively incapacitated and need someone to make decisions on your care, it’s essential to have that paperwork in place.
And, as a periodic reminder to all parents who’ve recently sent their kids off to college, without a Power of Attorney for healthcare or healthcare proxy in place, if your away-at-school adult child were ill and had not granted you PoA for healthcare, the college’s health center or local hospital would not be allowed to provide you with any information about your child’s condition or care.
So, Power of Attorney documents are pretty darned important. You want them in place so that your spouse, partner, adult child, or trusted friend or advisor can be kept informed of your situation and can, if necessary, make decisions and take actions on your behalf.
This is the be-all and end-all of advice we paper specialists generally need to give. But guess what? We’ve been missing a pretty important document related to older adults!
BEYOND THE POA: THE DOCUMENT YOU DIDN’T KNOW YOU NEEDED
Let’s imagine your spouse is 65 or older. Or perhaps we’re talking about your parent, or another slightly older loved one. (I say slightly older, as now that Paper Doll has reached 55, the age of 65, when you can get Medicare coverage, doesn’t seem that far off.) Or perhaps you’re the one with Medicare.
You’d assume that as long as Powers of Attorney had been executed with regard to financial and medical decisions, then everything would be A-OK. Right?
Mostly. But not entirely.
It turns out that, by law, if you want someone (your spouse or significant other, your adult child, your caregiver, etc.) to speak to Medicare on your behalf, having a both a Durable Power of Attorney for financial issues and one for medical issues is not enough.
Perhaps because each state has a different variation on PoA forms, or perhaps because the government just likes to be wackadoodle, Medicare requires you grant prior authorization via a surprisingly under-mentioned form called the 1-800-MEDICARE Authorization to Disclose Personal Health Information Form or CMS-10106. (Doesn’t that just roll trippingly off the tongue?)
You must fill out the CMS-10106 well in advance if you want someone to potentially be able to discuss any of the following with Medicare:
- Medicare eligibility
- Medicare claims
- Plan enrollment (including part D or other drug plans)
- Payment of premiums
- Other information, including payments to beneficiaries
So, if you have Medicare, are you thinking “Whoops!” and wondering what happens if you have secured your financial and healthcare PoAs but haven’t ever filled out this authorization?
It turns out there’s a quirky loophole. If a person HAS done both of their PoA forms but hasn’t actually filled out this authorization form, it’s entirely not a catastrophe. That’s because the person who fills out the form has to be either one of the following:
- the beneficiary (that is, the person on Medicare)
OR
- the personal representative of the person on Medicare (that is, the person who has the Powers of Attorney, or otherwise has been granted authorization over your information).
So, yes, if you’re the person with the Power of Attorney for a Medicare beneficiary, you can authorize yourself to let Medicare talk to you about someone’s health and payment information. And if that seems a little weird to you, well, you’re not the only one.
The problem is that if someone hasn’t ever filled out the CMS-10106 in advance and their personal representative has to do it, it’ll take time to process because you have to MAIL it to Medicare.
That’s right — you can’t submit the authorization form online or even by fax. You have to mail it, like it’s 20th century, to a post office box in Lawrence, Kansas!
So, that’s why I’m writing this post, so that if you or someone you know is enrolled in Medicare, you (or they) can jump right on this.
WHAT TO KNOW ABOUT THE CMS-10106
The first thing to know about the long-windedly named 1-800-MEDICARE Authorization to Disclose Personal Health Information Form (CMS-10106) is that it’s a fillable PDF.
For those unfamiliar, that’s a digital form that allows you to type the information right into the blank fields on the screen so that when it’s printed, the information you typed is blended with the form provided, as if you were using a typewriter and typing right on the paper. One supposes that Medicare doesn’t want people to print and fill the blank documents by hand to prevent confusion caused by messy handwriting.
Open the CMS-10106 instructions and form on a computer. (While I have not tested all browser options, the fillable PDF function does not work on my iPhone or iPad.)
The form has only six questions (with a few sub-sections) and they are pretty self-explanatory.
Q1: First, fill in the name, Medicare number, and birthday of the person who is a Medicare beneficiary. That’s either you, or if you’re the person with Power of Attorney for a person with Medicare, you’ll put their information. (You’ll get to identify yourself as the Medicare beneficiary’s personal representative later on in the form.)
Q2: Next, you get to choose whether you’re allowing all information to be disclosed, or only a limited amount.
You can specify whether Medicare can disclose information related to any or all of the categories mentioned: eligibility, claims, plan enrollment, payment of premiums, and/or other information, including payments to beneficiaries.
(There is a special sub-question just for New York residents, allowing them to grant or withhold authorization to discuss alcohol and drug abuse, mental health treatment, and HIV status. If you are not a New York State resident, you will skip this question.)
Q3: At this point, you get to decide whether you want authorize Medicare to disclose your personal information indefinitely, or only for a limited period of time (and you would provide a start and end date).
In most cases, you would grant authorization indefinitely to your spouse, adult child, or loved one. However, if you’re a singleton and asking a good friend (but perhaps not your BFF) to help you with these things, you might want to date-limit authorization. (Also, as you’ll see below, you may have reasons to grant authorization for a limited period to representatives of an agency or organization.)
Note: even if you grant indefinite authorization, your state may have separate regulations regarding how long authorization stands. Yes, that lack of uniformity between states and a federal agency is another example of how wackadoodle red tape can be.
Q4: The fourth question could prove a little confusing, so Medicare offers a twinge of help. The question reads, “Fill in the reason for the disclosure (you may write “at my request”):”
It’s good that they’ve added that parenthetical option, because most people would end up filling the two blank lines with some variation on, “Because I’m having this yucky surgery and my brain is going to be floopy for a while and I’ll be in the hospital and then in a rehab facility without good cell service, I want my cousin Bernice to be able to talk to Medicare for me.” And that won’t really help anyone. Just write, “at my request” and be done with it.
Q5: The fifth question gives you the opportunity to name two people (and provide their addresses) to whom Medicare can disclose your personal information. If you have named primary and secondary “agents” as your Powers of Attorney, these would be the people you’d most likely list here. (You can add more names on a separate sheet of paper.)
Note: Medicare allows you to list organizations instead of, or in addition to, individual persons; for example, if you’ve hired a professional financial organizer, daily money manager, geriatric care manager, or elder attorney, you might want to list the company/service so that assigned team members can provide assistance.
Another reason you might want to list a particular organization is if you’ve been injured in an accident. Let’s say you need to make a personal injury claim because your neighbor’s giant skeleton display for Halloween falls on you.
If you are making a claim, you have to prove that you sustained injuries, and your medical records (including Medicare records) may be required to support your claim and get your neighbor’s insurance to pay. Authorizing Medicare to talk to your neighbor’s insurance company may help speed things along.
Q6: The final question is formatted a little differently. First, there’s the official authorization statement:
“I authorize 1-800-MEDICARE to disclose my personal health information listed above to the person(s) or organization(s) I have named on this form. I understand that my personal health information may be re-disclosed by the person(s) or organization(s) and may no longer be protected by law.”
Underneath, there are fields for a signature (the only field you will leave blank until after you print the document), phone number, and date you’re filling out the form. Then there’s a box to list the complete address of the person with Medicare (that is, the beneficiary).
Note: if you’re not the beneficiary (rather, you’re the one helping the person with Medicare), you’ll check the box that says, “Check here if you are signing as a personal representative and complete below. Please attach the appropriate documentation (for example, Power of Attorney).”
Then you’ll provide your own address, telephone number, and your relationship to the beneficiary, and you’ll attach a copy of the Power of Attorney documents to prove you are authorized to be a personal representative. (Again, you’re authorizing yourself to authorize yourself to talk to Medicare. Yes, it’s weird.)
Remember, the person with Medicare is the beneficiary; the person helping the beneficiary is the personal representative!
Once you complete the entire form, there’s a grey PRINT FORM button at the bottom. Click it, and then sign on the signature line for question #6. Remember, I said the fillable PDF wouldn’t let you type anything there? That’s because, of course, you have to hand-sign the document. You can’t use Adobe or Apple Preview’s digital signature feature because the form won’t let you click there.
Make a copy of the CMS-10106 for your own records and mail the signed, blended form to:
Medicare CCO, Written Authorization Dept.
PO Box 1270
Lawrence, KS 66044
WHAT IF I CHANGE MY MIND?
At any time, even if you’ve granted indefinite authorization or the ending date of the limited authorization has not yet occurred, you can revoke your authorization.
This doesn’t have to seem like a mean thing. I mean, sure, you could be in a huge fight with your Cousin Bernice because she said the potato salad you brought to the last family reunion wasn’t as good as hers, and you’ve decided you don’t want her to be authorized to talk to Medicare on your behalf.
More likely, however, you may have divorced your spouse or separated from your significant other, or the person you’d previously assigned authorization to might be ill themselves, or otherwise unavailable. Or you may have just moved to a different city, where it wouldn’t make sense for the formerly authorized person to help you with your Medicare issues.
How To Revoke Authorization
To revoke authorization, you must notify Medicare in writing and send it to the Lawrence, Kansas address, above. There’s no form, nor is there a sample letter. I would advise writing a simple letter (in the format of a business letter as you learned in school, along the lines of:
[Your Street Address]
[Your City/State/Zip]
[DATE]
To Whom It May Concern:
I, [YOUR NAME]/Medicare #[YOUR MEDICARE NUMBER] hereby revoke my authorization to disclose personal health information, previously granted on [DATE you signed the original CMS-10106], to [insert NAME OF PERSONS to whom you granted authorization].
I may be reached at [insert PHONE NUMBER] if there are any questions.
Sincerely,
signature
[YOUR NAME]
Be sure to sign the letter (between the “Sincerely” and the typed version of your name). If you’re old enough to receive Medicare, you probably know how to write a business letter in block format. If you’re GenZ or a younger Millennial, you’re welcome.
WHAT IF THE MEDICARE BENEFICIARY HAS PASSED AWAY?
There are times when a personal representative will not have Power of Attorney status. If the beneficiary is deceased (let’s say, it’s your great-grandfather), you may still use this same form, but you will need to add copies of different legal documents. This is because Power of Attorney documents “do not survive” — in other words, they don’t retain power — after an individual’s death.
So, instead of PoA documents, you might need to attach copies of “personal representative paperwork” that signifies that you are the executor of the deceased’s will or the administrator of an estate or have a similar role. Documents might include:
- a court document that states you are the deceased’s next of kin*
- a Letter of Testamentary (or Letter of Administration)*
- other personal representative papers indicating you are the executor or administrator*
*In any of the above cases, the documents will need to have a court stamp and judge’s signature.
You’ll also want to include a statement of how you’re related to the deceased Medicare beneficiary.
September is National Preparedness Month, and Ready.gov has a wide variety of information on how to plan ahead and prepare for disasters. However, being “ready” involves being prepared for far more than natural disasters. While I encourage you to visit Ready.gov, I also urge you to (re)visit the Paper Doll posts linked at the top of this page so that you have all the essential Very Important Papers you need, securely organized and accessible.
Paper Doll Post:
Do (Not) Be Alarmed: Paper Doll’s Wake-Up Advice for Productivity
September’s approach means many things: a new school year, a new television season, Europeans coming back from their August-long vacations.
But in September, when I see kids lined up for the school bus, I remember when I went to kindergarten and Paper Mommy bought me a giant, orange, retro, two-bell alarm clock.
(I realize this is yellow and not orange, but we don’t have a photo of my childhood alarm clock. This is a very close reproduction.)
You could see the clock from any vantage point in my room, and the ring was sonorous. There was no way I’d ever oversleep and miss the school bus with that loud din. (Initially, as with all school-related things that year, I was excited. But it takes about three days of being awakened by something that loud for the delight to wear off.)
If you think about it, time management and productivity begins with waking up in time to set your plans in motion, so I thought we’d take a foray into idea of waking up on time.
A SHORT HISTORY OF ALARM CLOCKS
The alarm clock — even the very concept of waking up at a specific time — is fairly new.
Throughout history, people were generally awakened by natural occurrences: the sun rising (and warmth on one’s face or light in one’s eyes), the crowing of roosters, the crying of babies, or the call of nature. City dwellers might have been awakened by church bells or street noise, but farmers far from villages were dependent upon their own natural body clocks and the people and animals around them.
These not-very-specific waking hours were not a problem for most people until the Industrial Revolution in the 19th century. Before that, unless you were within proximity of a clock tower or your family had the wealth to own a clock at home, it was enough to speak generally of meeting someone at dawn’s first light or midday or supper time. However, with the advent of trains (and the ability to catch them) and factory work, it became essential to know the specific time of day. That included waking up on time.
Before the invention of alarm clocks (and into the twentieth century), city dwellers in the UK hired “knocker uppers,” people who would literally knock on one’s windows and doors with everything from broom handles to batons (as in police sticks, not beauty pageant contestant’s silver poles with streamers) to pea shooters! Believe it or not, some people continued “knocker upper” subscriptions long past the invention of alarm clocks; in fact, the last knocker upper service in the UK didn’t cease until the 1970s, long after the rise of household electricity and clock radios.
If you didn’t mind having a giant water wheel handy, you could have been awakened on time (to the sound of a powerful chime and a puppet show) with the assistance of the Water-Driven Spherical Bird’s-Eye-View Map of the Heaven, invented by Chinese monk Xi Ping in the year 725.
Although the first mechanical alarm clock was invented in 1787 by American Levi Hutchins but his design was never patented. Sixty years later, Antoine Redier in France patented the first adjustable alarm clock wherein each hour on the clock’s dial/face had a hole; if you wanted to get up at 7, you put a pin next to the hole next to the number seven. Want to get up on the half hour (or any time except on the hour)? You were out of luck.
It wasn’t until 1876 (which may seem a long time ago to you GenZ and Millennial readers, but that was only eleven years before one of my grandfathers was born) that an American patented a more workable alarm clock and began mass-producing them.
For more on the history of alarm clocks, from the World War II era shortage (due to the use of all spare metal for wartime production) to the development of clock radios, snooze alarms, and my beloved college-era SONY Dream Machine (in production from 1960s until the early 2010s),
you can read Atlas Obscura’s lovely piece on the 2000-Year History of Alarm Clocks and All That’s Interesting’s How Did People Wake Up Before Alarm Clocks?
HAS PAPER DOLL FALLEN INTO A TIME WARP?
Are you fearing that Paper Doll has had an alarm clock dropped on her head?
You may be wondering why I’m talking about alarm clocks. After all, hasn’t everyone replaced alarm clocks with their smart phones? Yes, pretty much, most have.
But Paper Doll has a secret for you. Quite a bit of research finds that you might be healthier and happier using an actual alarm clock rather than your phone. And a happier, healthier you has a better chance of being productive and getting things done.
YOUR PHONE AS AN ALARM CLOCK, YAY OR NAY?
Sure, there are good reasons to use your phone as your alarm clock:
- You and your phone are already inseparable. You’re much more likely to trust it than a hotel’s front desk wake-up call or even your spouse’s promise to wake you up.
- It takes no effort to set your phone’s clock to the right time. Your cell phone provider already links your phone’s clock to the atomic clock of wherever you’re located by its connection to low-orbit GPS satellites; it (usually) even readjusts automatically when you change time zones. (If you’re not connected to cell towers, your phone’s internal clock takes over until the next time in connects to the network.)
- You can set your phone to wake you up with your favorite song or sound. Whether you’d like to wake up shaking your groove thing to Lizzo’s About Damn Time or prefer to pretend that you’re standing in for Bill Murray in your own version of Groundhog Day, there’s audio for you.
- There are lots of different alarm clock apps for iOS or Android to help you either ease into your day or be shocked out of your sleepy stupor, depending on which you prefer.
However, the ubiquity of phones in our lives is part of the reason they can be harmful in the bedroom:
Light at night is bad for us.
Harvard researchers found that increasing the amount of nighttime light study participants received increased their blood glucose levels similar to those found in people who are pre-diabetic. The nighttime light also decreased participants’ levels of leptin, the hormone that makes you feel satiated after a meal, so you stop grazing between dinner and bedtime and throughout the next day. So, too much light at night can impact your health, overall, and your waistline.
While any light at night can wreck our sleep, this is especially true of blue light. And yup, the screens on our digital devices (like our phones) tend to make use of blue wavelengths. This is a double-edged coin.
The blue light wavelengths are great during the day, as they amp up our moods, our reaction time, and our ability to stay focused and attentive. Yay, blue!
But those same wavelengths of blue light at night tinker with our circadian rhythms, making it harder to fall asleep. All that unnatural light tricks our bodies into thinking it’s still daytime, and so we don’t feel that pleasantly fuzzy sleepiness that makes it easy to drop off without worry or care. Boo, blue!
In fact, while all night light suppresses the production of melatonin, a hormone that controls our circadian rhythms, blue light is the most potent. So, not to scare you, but as cozy at it is to have your phone under your pillow or at your bedside, it’s not worth that blue light messing with your sleep and putting you at risk for obesity, hypertension, or diabetes.
Scrolling, and especially doom scrolling, spells doom for our sleep quality.
Watching any screens in the hour or two before bed is bad for us because of that blue light. But the content on our phones can be just as precarious.
Doom scrolling is the compunction to engage in negative information. When doom scrolling through Twitter or your favorite news feeds, keeping up with what’s going on in the world, you’re probably finding a preponderance of bad news, things that will stress you out and make you angry or frustrated.
It’s not your fault. Our brains are wired to experience a negativity bias, wherein (controlling for the emotional power of a piece of information), we’re more likely to see something negative as having a deeper impact on our lives than something positive. A study at the University of Sussex found that doom scrolling is more likely to make us feel anxiety, stress, fear, depression, and sense of isolation. (And yes, this got worse during COVID.)
Let’s not forget dopamine. Dopamine works when you’re scrolling through social media the same way it works when you’re pulling the arm (or pushing the button) on a slot machine. Dopamine is a hormone that works like a drug, urging you to seek further gratification, which may be a TikTok video that makes you laugh or a tweet confirming your negativity bias that a particular politician is leading to the ruination of all that is good and holy.
Of course, it doesn’t have to be social media. Video games, movies, videos, and TV shows are all (generally) energizing, and the last thing we should be engaging in before sleepy-bye time is whiz-bam-pow!
All of this is bad for your before-bed brain in the same way that letting a toddler get all “sugared up” and run around in the hour before bed will make it harder to get them to sleep. That’s why we focus on good sleep hygiene for tiny humans, giving them baths and stories and snuggle time, in hopes of relaxing them off to dreamland. Grownups need that help to power down, too.
And for those of you who are partnered, a phone-free bedroom mean an increase in the likelihood of intimacy, whether that’s relating emotionally or canoodling.
Scrolling is just as bad in the morning as at night.
Everything we need to avoid at night so that we can wind down and get to sleep is still going to be there when we wake up. But does it have to be there the very minute we wake up?
Whether it’s an email your boss sent off at 2 a.m., a tragic news story from the other side of the world, or whatever is “trending,” your phone can be a royal messenger of frustration.
Give yourself some time in the morning to ease into your day, whether that’s with your significant other, children, or pet. Even just having some quiet time between waking and breakfast can help you create the right mood for the day.
So, I challenge you to banish your phone from the bedroom.
REPLACE YOUR PHONE WITH AN ALARM CLOCK
So, if you’re not going to let the not-so-dulcet tones of your phone wake you up and start your heart racing, what should you use? Unless you have the funds (and the trust) to hire a knocker upper, an old school two-bell alarm clock or travel might be just the ticket. (Or, the noise might set your teeth on edge.)
Of course, it doesn’t have to be old school. There are some nifty modern alarm clocks that might be better suited to your particular needs, from glowing sunrise-simulation clocks that gently wake you with the kind of light that’s healthy for starting your day to clocks that shake, rattle, and roll you to your feet.
Here is just a sample of what you might consider, especially if you tend to hit the snooze button until the last possible moment.
Clocky — is an EXTRA LOUD alarm clock on wheels. What Roomba is for vacuuming the living room, Clocky is for getting you to actually wake up and start your day. When the alarm goes off, you get one chance to snooze, but after that, Clocky rolls and runs away, and you have to chase after it!
An MIT student who had trouble getting herself up and out of bed, Gauri Nanda combined her engineering skills with a desire to improve the aesthetics of alarm clocks to make them delightful instead of solely alarming.
Clocky comes in several colors (black, white, light blue, peach, blue, silver, and gold). It sells for $39.99 on the web site and on between $20 and $40 on Amazon, depending on the style.
Little Hippo’s Mella Sleep Alarm — This kid-oriented charmer is a sleep trainer, alarm clock, sleep sounds machine, night light, nap timer, and digital nanny (helping convince your tiny humans to stay in bed until it’s time to actually wake themselves and the rest of the house).
Mella is white with accent features in Arctic Blue, Blush Pink, Bright Purple, Tropical Teal, and Kickstarter Green. You can buy Mella from the website or on Amazon for $49.99.
Pavlok’s Shock Clock 2 — This wrist-band waker-upper seeks to retrain your brain to make waking up about engaging your mind immediately. Pavlok’s Shock Clock 2 is very high-tech, able to track your sleep patterns using advanced motion detection via a 9-axis accelerometer. (No, don’t ask me what that is.)
To take advantage of your sleep rhythms, you can set the alarm so that it will only wake you between 0 and 20 minutes before your pre-programmed time to ensure it wakes you during the lightest stage of your sleep cycle.
The clock wakes you and gives you assignments to get your brain and body moving; if you’re a heavy, heavy, “I-hate-you-go-away” sleeper, it might make you do jumping jacks; Fitbit-style, it knows if you’re jumping (and no, unlike with Fitbit, you can’t put the Shock Clock 2 wristband on your dog…and I doubt your dog can do jumping jacks). The alarm won’t turn off until you’ve responded to its order to jump with “How high?” (OK, I made up that part.)
The Shock Clock 2 might assign you other kinds of activities, like going on a treasure hunt around your house to scan QR codes placed in various locations. If you seriously want to train yourself out of snoozing, this is definitely an intense way to go about it.
The Shock Clock 2 comes in red, blue, pink, and black, and costs $149 at the Pavlok store.
Ruggie Alarm Clock — This doesn’t even look like an alarm clock; rather, it looks more like a cozy bathroom rug for keeping your tootsies warm when you get out of the shower. But Ruggie is sneaky.
You can’t just hit the snooze. You have to get out of bed, and STAY out of bed for at least three seconds, with both feet on the pressure-sensitive mat. Plus, Ruggie has a library of morning greetings so your can personalize the start of your day with affirmations, empowering messages, and giggles.
Ruggie is a little too popular; it’s out of stock right now, but check back with the company, because this could be a fun way to entice yourself (or your not-so-self-starting kids) to get out of bed.
FURTHER RESOURCES
If you have any heavy sleepers in your house with special wake-up needs, consider perusing:
The Best Alarm Clocks for Sleepyheads (ADDitude Magazine)
When Alarm Clocks Fly: The Tools to Get You Out of Bed — The Best Alarm Clocks for Children and Teens with ADHD (ADDitude Magazine)
19 Best Alarm Clocks of 2022 (NYMagazine’s The Strategist)
Just remember to bear in mind what I said about light disturbing your sleep, and check reviews for mechanical clocks to make sure nobody is complaining about ticking noises.
Do you wake up on your own, or do you need an alarm? Is an alarm (on your phone or alarm clock) not quite enough? What’s your ideal way to wake up in the morning?
Have I convinced you to keep your smart phone out of the bedroom?
Please share in the comments and let us know how you wake up.
Paper Doll Post:
Paper Doll on the NAPO Stand Out Podcast: Why Paper Still Matters
Today’s Paper Doll post is part confessional, part promotional, and part educational. But first…
Have you listened to any good podcasts lately?
I love sharing my research and philosophies of organizing and productivity here in the Paper Doll blog, but I know that sometimes it’s more convenient to listen to (or watch) material that interests you. To that end, back in May, I shared Paper Doll Picks: Organizing and Productivity Podcasts, a list of my favorite podcasts and podcasters in the realms of organizing and productivity. (If you didn’t check it out previously, now is a great time to find some new favorites!)
When I wrote Paper Doll on Planning & Prioritizing for Leadership, I even gave you a two-for-one, recommending you sign up for The Leader’s Asset, a July/August interview series I participated in, as well as sharing my interview on Dr. Frank Buck: Productivity for Total Control & Peace of Mind.
If you didn’t catch my episode, “Julie Bestry: Don’t Apologize…Organize!” the first time around, you can listen at the show link or via Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or all your usual yummy podcast hangouts. (Consider it a summer rerun.) Given the high temperatures around the country, why should you have to struggle and run clicking around the internet dial? Here’s the YouTube version.
Casting a Backward Glance
I started my business twenty years ago, the year that the federal government started prosecuting Enron, the term “Axis of Evil” was coined, and Kelly Clarkson won the first American Idol competition. I joined what was then the National Association of Professional Organizers (NAPO) in the spring of 2002.
When asked what I wanted to do with my business, I said that while I was looking forward to working one-on-one with clients to make their spaces more organized and their lives more productive, my dream project was to have my own newspaper or magazine column.
I started blogging (which is kind of like having a column) in 2007, the same year I became a Certified Professional Organizer.
Over the years, I’ve written some ebooks and had a book (now out of distribution) traditionally published.
I have also been interviewed for a variety of media outlets , including newspapers and magazines (including, I’m always delighted to say, Real Simple), as well as on local television and radio, and on the podcasts in the Paper Doll Picks poast, linked above.
But what I really want to tell you about is a particular career highlight for me.
The NAPO Stand Out Podcast (and a Case of Nerves)
NAPO is still NAPO, but now that stands for the National Association of Productivity and Organizing Professionals. (As you’ve probably noticed, the focus of Paper Doll has also expanded to include more time management and productivity topics, along with paper and information organizing posts.) Since 2018, NAPO has had its own podcast, The NAPO Stand Out Podcast.
The NAPO Stand Out podcast invites organizers, productivity experts, and related experts to share their successes, challenges, best practices, proven strategies, industry developments, and fabulous anecdotes. Of course I listen, as it’s tailor-made for someone like me.
Near the end of last year, the host of the NAPO Stand Out Podcast, my friend Clare Kumar, messaged me to see if I’d like to be on the NAPO podcast.
Clare is a Canadian professional organizer, coach, and media darling, and as I’ve mentioned on these pages before, has a laugh that completely draws you in. She specializes in helping Highly Sensitive Persons (HSPs) optimize their professional performance, and she has her own podcast, Happy Space with Clare Kumar, all about helping HSPs find their own happy spaces. Clare is a force of nature.
Now, as you longtime readers know, I’m not exactly a shrinking violet. I’m always eager to talk (until the cows come home) about residential or business organizing, time management, Evernote, and everything else from notebooks to toxic productivity.
But the NAPO Stand Out Podcast was a different kettle of fish. One of its main audiences includes thousands of my professional organizing colleagues. This wasn’t a matter of talking to strangers who follow other people’s podcasts; this would be heard and seen by my peeps, including the professional organizing rock stars to whom I’ve looked up since I started my business.
The first-ever guest was Geralin Thomas, who is as fashionable as she is business-savvy, and has pivoted to training the next generation of organizing stars. The guest the week before I was set to appear was Harold Taylor, an absolute pioneer of time management and author of numerous books, including the seminal Making Time Work for You
and a time management blog that never ceases to deliver. (You might like The Return of the Checklist.)
From Geralin’s podcast episode #1 and Harold’s #102, the NAPO Stand Out Podcast interviewed powerhouse talents, from former NAPO president and absolute goddess Standolyn Robertson to author/TV star Peter Walsh to multimedia “happiness” guru and best-selling author Gretchen Rubin.
I mean, come on!
I have no trouble getting up to give a presentation in front of a room full of moms of preschoolers or accountants or CEOs because, as speaker training indoctrinates us, in that situation, the speaker is the expert. But a huge number of NAPO Stand Out Podcast listeners are professional organizers; they’re already experts.
“What could I possibly say that would be new or interesting to them?” I whined to my mastermind group. They were amused and not-at-all persuaded by my rare show of humility, and convinced me to have a Zoom call with Clare, who could sell galoshes to desert-dwellers.
Within moments of making delightful conversation, Clare was able to identify some very specific areas in the paper realm about which I feel passionate, and “organized” my anxieties right out of existence. (“Why paper still matters?” Just try to keep me from talking about that!) And then when I procrastinated week after week about actually scheduling the official interview, Clare appeared as if by magic to take the bull (or at least my bull-headedness) by the horns.
And this is the result. You can watch the whole, extended podcast here, via YouTube.
If you’d rather listen while walking (and don’t mind missing the secret squirrel video bonus material), check out the official NAPO Stand Out Podcast page for episode #103 for Why Paper Still Matters with Julie Bestry or the Why Paper Still Matters LibSyn podcast syndication page (with extended show note and links for literally every darned thing I mentioned). Of course, the episode is also available on various podcast platforms, including:
Over the course of the episode, Clare and I discussed how our relationship to paper has changed in recent decades, especially since the advent of smartphones. (We were promised a paper-free office after the advent of the computer revolution, but it didn’t really turn out as we expected!)
We also delved into the importance of finding a system that works for you, whether that’s digital, paper, or hybrid, and how different areas of our lives, from note-notetaking to capturing tasks, benefit from different approaches. I even got to put in a plug for my beloved Cornell note-taking method, which will be a topic of an upcoming blog post for the back-to-school season.
No matter whether you agree or disagree with my take on the beauty of an invitation addressed with calligraphy — I find it superior to an emailed save-the-date reminder — I think you’ll enjoy our hearty discussion of how and why paper still matters in many ways, from paper’s role in cognitive processes to its place in our hearts.
I hope you will take some time this week to watch or listen to the podcast and let me know what you think. Does paper still matter to you?
Paper Doll Post:
Organize for an Accident: Don’t Crash Your Car Insurance Paperwork [UPDATED]
[Editor’s note: This post originally appeared on Paper Doll on 1/23/2020 and has been revised and updated as of 8/8/2022. As many college students are headed off or back to their universities with cars, this is an ideal time to discuss the finer points of auto insurance.]
(Image by Andrea Closier on Pixabay)
What happens when an unstoppable force meets an immovable object?
In January 2020, Paper Doll was sitting at a traffic light, preparing to make a turn, when the car behind me answered that physics question. Luckily, it was more of a THUD or a BAM than a CRUNCH. However, even the most minor of fender benders can be scary and overwhelming. It’s definitely not the time to wish you’d been more organized with your car insurance paperwork.
Even the most minor of fender benders can be scary and overwhelming. It's definitely not the time to wish you'd been more organized with your car insurance paperwork. Share on XToday, we’re going to look at the different kinds of paperwork you need, and how to organize it, to make sure you are protected and confident regarding your car insurance.
APPLYING FOR CAR INSURANCE
Whether you’re new to driving, are changing insurance companies, or are insuring a new car in your household, there are certain documents you’re going to need when you apply. Having everything in order ahead of time will make the process move more smoothly. You will need information about yourself, any other drivers covered on the policy, and the vehicle, such as:
Social Security Number(s) — You will need the SSN of anyone who is to be covered on your policy.
Your Driver’s License — Some insurance companies will only need the license number; more old-school agents may want a photocopy of your license. If, like me, you don’t like letting your license out of your hands, make a few photocopies of your license and you’ll have them when you need them.
Your insurance company isn’t just verifying that you are licensed to drive. They’re going to check your driving record — also called a Motor Vehicle Report (MVR) in some areas — to verify that your license hasn’t expired or been suspended, and to see whether you’ve had any accidents, convictions, or traffic violations. Most states look at your driving record for the last three years; however, there are exceptions. Kansas and New Jersey reports go back five years; Colorado, Indiana, and West Virginia look back seven years.
WalletHub has a state-by-state guide to getting a copy of your MVR, with links, in case you want to check it for accuracy before seeking insurance. In my state, I can get a copy for $5 in person or or online; nationwide, costs range from $2 to $25 (sometimes plus processing fees to use debit/credit cards) per report. Be prepared to use an authentication app, like Google Authenticator, or receive a text or email or verify your identity.
Do not be scammed into using a non-governmental service that promises to get your MVR online for you; they up-charge a significant amount and are usually not any faster than going through your state’s website.
Financial History — Insurance companies do standard credit checks, so it’s a good idea to check your credit history at AnnualCreditReport.com (and not one of the shady copycats), as well as your credit score, to make sure there are no mistakes.
Your Current Insurance Declarations Page – You know that long page (or set of pages) in your policy with big numbers like $300,000/$500,000? (More on that, below.) Having that page will allow your new insurer to provide you with an apples-to-apples quote.
Vehicle Information Number (VIN) — This 17-character identifier is unique to your car and is built into your dashboard or imprinted in your driver’s side door frame. Your insurer uses this to verify that the car is not stolen and doesn’t have any problematic history.
Discount-Related Paperwork — There are a variety of ways to get a discount on car insurance. Your driving record (MVR) will verify if you qualify for a “good driver” discount, and you (or your teenager or college student) may be able to submit a current report card to qualify for a “good student” discount. To get the discount, students usually need to be under 25 and have no at-fault or moving violations on their MVR. A GPA of 3.0 (on a 4.0 scale) or Honor Roll/Dean’s List status is generally required.
You can also get multi-car discounts if you and your spouse both have cars, or multi-policy discounts if you carry homeowners’ or renters’ insurance with the same company.
If you’re over a certain age, you may be able to take a safe driver course, like one offered by AARP, to lower your rates.
You might be eligible for affinity discounts if you are a member of certain clubs, organizations, alumni associations, or sororities/fraternities. There are also often occupational discounts for members of certain professions, including first responders and medical professionals, educators, and government employees, so it’s worth asking your agent what discounts exist before you get too far in the application process.
ORGANIZING YOUR INSURANCE PAPERWORK
Once you have an auto insurance policy in place, you’re going to have paperwork. The more organized you can be, up-front, the less stress you’ll have to deal with in case of an accident or other issue.
Policy
This is the multi-page legal document that tells you everything about your coverage. It can be overwhelming. Make sure you go over it with your insurance agent so that you know and understand the essential elements of your policy, particularly the items on your declarations page, which spells out your coverage:
- Liability (also called Bodily Injury Liability) — These are the limits on your policy per person per accident. You may see $100,000/$300,000, which means you’re covered for any medical expenses and/or lost wages for anyone (including other drivers, passengers, and even bystanders) injured in an accident you cause, up to that amount.
- Property Damage — This pays to repair or replace things that get damaged (in an accident you cause), like other people’s cars, items in their cars that get damaged, actual property (like someone’s garage or mailbox). The dollar limit is quoted per accident. Be sure you understand the difference between collision and comprehensive. Collision covers damage to your car when it collides with another car, or a tree, or a Bob’s Big Boy. Comprehensive covers damage to your car caused by things like vandalism or theft by hooligans, or “natural” disasters (hail, tornadoes), a tree toppling onto your car, or Bambi taking a running leap at your hood.
Your policy may combine liability and property damage into one category, so you might see it listed with three numbers, like “100/300/50” which means $100,000 for injuries per person, $300,000 for total injuries per accident, $50,000 for damages to property.
Depending on your state, your policy may also have (or even require) special types of insurance options, like:
- Uninsured and underinsured motorist coverage — If someone hits you but doesn’t have enough (or any!) insurance, it will cover injuries if you or your passengers get hurt. Basically, you’re insuring yourself against people who aren’t responsible enough to have (enough) insurance. There’s also a line item for uninsured motorist property damage; as you may have guessed, it covers your car if the person who hits you doesn’t have insurance.
- Personal injury protection insurance (PIP) — If you live in a “no-fault” state, this pays out for medical expenses for minor injuries or lost wages for you or your passengers. (Liability coverage is only invoked if the costs go beyond what PIP covers.)
- Medical payment coverage — Like PIP, this covers you or your passengers’ accident-related injuries, no matter which driver is at fault. It doesn’t cover lost wages, and the limits tend to be $5,000-10,000.
Your policy may also cover things like glass replacement damage, towing and road service, accident forgiveness (to keep your rates from going up after an accident claim) and loss of use (for a car rental while a vehicle is being repaired).
I encourage clients to make a file folder for each insurance policy they own (auto insurance, homeowners, etc.) and keep it in the Legal section of your Family File System.
The declarations page is a good cheat sheet for all of your coverage. You may want to make a photocopy and keep it in your glove compartment, or take a photo/scan to save in Evernote, Dropbox, or a similar app accessible on your phone.
Notes for Canadian Readers
Please note that all of the above refers to purchasing auto insurance in the United States. In Canada, different language is used. For example, in addition to provincial and territorial mandatory coverage, there are optional policies including “collision, specified perils, comprehensive, and all perils.” If you are seeking information regarding auto insurance (and organizing insurance paperwork) in Canada, please confer with an insurance professional (or a member of Professional Organizers in Canada).
Bills for Premiums
Insurance companies usually give you the option of paying annually, twice per year, or monthly. The less often they have to invoice you, the more likely you are to get a discount, so paying every six months can save you a bit over monthly bills.
If you receive paper bills, mark the payment date, amount, method of payment (and confirmation number, if applicable) on the invoice and file it in the Financial section of your Family File System.
If you tend to go paperless, print a PDF or take a screen shot of the confirmation screen and keep it in a “paid invoices” folder on your computer, and be sure to able it clearly, like “2022-May Ins-Car.”
Re-shopping Insurance Policies
In April 2022, I made a few calls to investigate the rates of competitive auto and rental insurance policies. When I found an auto policy that was significantly lower than what I’d been paying (while not increasing my associated renter’s policy) for an equivalent policy with an equally reputable insurance company, I contacted my agent.
I was surprised, delighted, and then admittedly annoyed when my agent “magically” found me an even more competitive rate. (A reminder: companies generally do not go looking for ways to reduce consumer costs!) However, even though I was staying with my same insurance company where I’d been for 24+ years, my policy was technically with a new sub-company, and my “accident forgiveness” guarantee went away, as if I were a new policy holder. However, I was able to retain that status with a $20 one-time fee. Caveat emptor!
So, do consider shopping for better rates/discounts at least every couple of years. It’s not fun, but it’s not as inconvenient as you might imagine. If you like your current insurance agent/company, give them the opportunity to surprise, delight, and slightly annoy you by magically finding better rates.
Proof of Insurance Cards
This little card has your name and address, your car’s VIN, make, and model, your insurance company’s name and contact information, and your policy number. It is the only document that verifies the coverage on each of your cars, so keep your proof of insurance somewhere safe in case you need to present it to a police officer or someone with whom you’ve had a driving “misadventure,” or to have information handy if you need to file a claim or report damage to your insurer.
Most insurance companies provide two proof of insurance cards on one piece of paper with your policy renewal. Consider putting one in your wallet and one in your glove compartment. If your glove box is not always tidy, you may want to consider something that keeps important documents front and center, like this car insurance and registration card holder in a bright color.
fashion-forward options, like this sparkly one (available in black, pink, purple, rose gold, and silver).
I also encourage clients to take a photo of your proof of insurance card and keep it in the cloud, accessible via your cell phone in Evernote or Dropbox. If you tend to drive places where cell service is spotty, consider keeping it in a “VIP” album in your photos app.
By the way, most insurance companies now provide official proof of insurance inside your account on the website or the app, but I wouldn’t leave that as your only proof. If you are stopped by a police officer, or worse, in an accident, you don’t want to be at the mercy of wonky internet access.
Other Info
Right now, take a moment to put the following numbers and URLs in your phone:
- The police non-emergency line – if you have a minor fender-bender, there’s no need to call 911.
- Your insurance company’s Claim Filing telephone number. Most insurance companies have a 24/7 line to call if you’ve been in an accident. The Insurance Information Institute and BC Law Review maintain lists of most auto insurers’ telephone numbers for filing a claim. (This also may be useful if someone else causes your car damage; if another driver drags his feet about contacting his insurance company, or tries to convince to go to his cousin’s body shop or proposes some other hinky option, be prepared to call his insurance company to ensure things are handled on the up-and-up. Yes, I’m speaking from experience.)
- AAA or any other auto club’s number, URL, or app will make it easier to quickly call for a tow.
- Your insurance company’s direct claim filing/tracking URL – Navigate to your insurance company’s website, look for the “file a claim” link and bookmark it in your browser’s bookmark/favorite bar to find it quickly. While you may love your agent, she may not love you if you call her at 2 a.m. Most claim-filing departments have representatives on duty 24/7/365.
- The link to this post — Keep this link handy, if for no other reason than to avail yourself of the advice in the next section, should you need it.
WHAT TO DO IN CASE OF AN ACCIDENT
Photo by Praveesh Palakeel on Unsplash
- Take some deep, calming breaths. My bumper tap was minor, but I still felt shaky. Don’t get out of your car until you feel steady.
- Pull over slowly to get out of the stream of traffic. Turn on your hazard lights. (If you’ve never had to use your hazards before, go check to make sure you know where they are! Ask your teen drivers to do the same.) If you can’t move your car out of the flow of traffic, get all passengers to a safe spot until emergency vehicles arrive.
You might want to consider getting emergency flashers/road flares to make sure the people and cars are safe and that other vehicles can see what’s going on.
- Assess any injuries requiring urgent assistance (your own, and that of your passengers, anyone in the other car, and bystanders, if applicable).
- Call the police and, if appropriate, 911 for medical care. Assuming the other driver is not belligerent or under the influence, call the non-emergency police line to report the accident and request that a police report be taken. (Your insurance company will need documentation of the accident.)
- Exchange information — Get the other driver’s name, contact details, and insurance information. (Taking photos of someone’s proof of insurance and driver’s license is faster than writing it down and you can text those photos to your insurance agent.) Take photos of your car, the other driver’s car, the situation, and road conditions. If it’s a serious accident, ask witnesses to provide their contact info or to stay around until the police arrive.
- Call the claims number and/or your insurance agent if you want to file a claim. Even if you weren’t at fault, you may wish to call your agent, just to put yourself at ease and ensure that you haven’t missed any steps.
As I often say, being organized can’t prevent all catastrophes, but it can make them less catastrophic. Organize well. Drive safely.
Paper Doll Post:
Paper Doll’s Ultimate Guide to Getting a Document Notarized
When I was little, I thought a notary public was “Note of Republic.” After all, the concept of [“thing] of [location]” is a known form of expression. Consider Governor of Minnesota, Justice of [the] Peace, or Man of La Mancha. I figured “Note of Republic” meant that it was a document related to our country.
C’mon, it’s weird to hear “public” after a word. We have Certified Public Accountants, not Certified Accountants Public! We’re used to public school, public pool, public park, public relations. What the heck, I wondered when I first saw the expression properly written, was a notary?
Yes, I’m a grownup now, and (mostly) understand what notaries do, but unless you have used a notary’s services or are a notary yourself, you might wonder how it all ensures your legal documents are organized and squared away.
WHAT DOES A NOTARY DO?
Notary Stamp by Stephen Goldberg on Unsplash
According to the State of Tennessee (where Paper Doll resides), a notary public is:
a person of integrity who is appointed to act as an impartial witness to the signing of an important transaction and to perform a notarial act, which validates the transaction. A notary’s primary purpose is to prevent fraud and forgery by requiring the personal presence of the signer and satisfactorily identifying the signer.
Let’s look at how those elements come into play:
- a person of integrity — The rules vary by state, but generally, you have to be at least 18 years old, a citizen of the United States (though in some states, you need only be a permanent resident), either reside in the state or operate a business in that state, and be able to read and write in English.
You also have to submit an application and purchase a notary surety bond, which is like an insurance policy in that it protects the public in case a notary makes a grievous error.
As you might guess, people with felony records would not fall under the “person of integrity” definition and can’t become notaries. However, while we can all imagine various failures of integrity (bullying, gossiping, cheating at Scrabble), those don’t generally prevent someone from becoming a notary.
- act as an impartial witness — notaries can’t notarize their own signatures, transactions in which they are participants, or documents for their family members or friends.
- requiring the personal presence of the signer — until recently, “personal presence” was literal, but as we will see later, a virtual presence is sometimes an option.
- satisfactorily identifying the signer — this involves the signer being able to provide documents that prove identity.
WHAT ARE THE DIFFERENT TYPES OF NOTARIZATION?
If you’ve never had to get something notarized before, you may assume that there’s just one kind of notarization, where the notary says, “Yup, I’m acknowledging that I just saw you sign this thing.” But it’s more complicated than that.
There are main three types of notarizations:
1) Acknowledgements — The notary is saying, “OK, I just saw this person [verified as the lovely Ms. Nell Fenwick] sign this document willingly; there was no mustache-twirling Snidely Whiplash threatening to tie this person to the railroad tracks if they didn’t sign over the rights to their goldmine.” (What, don’t tell me you never watched Dudley Do-Right!)
There are some essential elements here:
- The signer (that’s Nell) has shown up in front of the notary.
- The notary has been able to positivity identify the person is actually Nell (according to the individual state’s regulations).
- The signer has either signed the document before showing up or must sign it in the notary’s presence.
- The signer has to be able to communicate directly to the notary that the signing is willingly done, at least in 49 states. However, in Arizona, the law allows signers to communicate their willingness to the notary through a translator.
(Also, for the purposes of this blog post, Nell and Snidely are in the United States, not Canada where the cartoon takes place. With apologies to my international readers, non-US notary regulations were far too complex to include in today’s post!)
The notary is required to make sure that the individual understands what the document is and what it means and what the consequences are, in addition to being willing to sign and not under any appearance of being coerced.
Obviously, notaries are not mind-readers; they can’t be certain a person isn’t in an emotionally abusive relationship or having their loved one held for ransom, but a notary can refuse to notarize a document if something seems seriously hinky. The notary can ask all sorts of questions, ranging from the kinds of questions first responders ask accident victims to those of a more legal nature. If the signer appears drunk or under the influence of dugs, or to be suffering from dementia or is otherwise seems cognitively, the notary can (and must) decline to notarize the document.
Acknowledgments are used when you’re getting any of a variety of documents signed, like a contract, a Power of Attorney, or a last will and testament.
2) Jurats — This old-timey, legalese expression (also known as “verification upon oath or affirmation” means that the signer is swearing (or affirming) to the notary that the contents of document they are signing are true.
- As a signer, you must show up and sign the document in front of the notary.
- In many (but, to Paper Doll‘s surprise, not all) states, the notary must verify the signer’s identity.
- The notary administer’s a verbal oath (or affirmation) and the signer must respond aloud* in such a away as to confirm mutual understanding. No nods or thumbs-up are allowed.
*I tried to find verification of what is required if the signer is deaf or is not able to speak, and while there don’t seem to be uniform answers, I was able to learn that communication through a translator or sign interpreter is not enough, though the notary and signer are allowed to communicate in sign language, via writing notes on paper, or typing on a computer, tablet, or cell phone, as long as they are in one another’s presence.
In theory, signers are supposed to raise their right hands while making the oath or affirming (just like in a courtroom), but it’s not required by law. (It’s just to make it obvious that this is more serious, legally speaking, than telling your college roommate’s mom that your roommate is in the shower she’s actually sleeping at her boyfriend’s dorm.)
The idea of an oath or affirmation may ring a bell if you’ve watched a lot of courtroom dramas and have heard, “Do you solemnly swear…”
In brief, an oath is a pledge before a religious entity. As some faiths do not allow oaths to be taken in civil settings, and as some people do not adhere to religious precepts, individuals get a choice. For more on the difference, the National Notary Association has made a short video to explain:
A jurat is used when you must notarize testimony. Imagine you are asked to notarize your statement that you witnessed Ms. Lucy Van Pelt promise not to pull the football away from Mr. Charlie Brown but then she pulled the football away, causing him to kick at the air, fall on his back, and complain of seeing stars.
There are different forms or certificates that notaries use for each notarization, whether acknowledgements or jurats. Generally, an acknowledgment certificate will say something like “acknowledged before me” (where “me” is the notary), while the jurat certificates will say something like, “subscribed and sworn to (or affirmed) before me.”
3) Copy certifications — This is when a notary confirms that the copy of a document is an exact match to the original version. Not all states allow this type of notarization.
Notaries can also provide other services. They can administer oaths, like those given to people deposed in legal depositions. (Notaries can’t administer oaths of office for government service or in a military setting, though.) In Maine, South Carolina, and Florida, they can also perform marriage ceremonies!
Pretty much any kind of document can be notarized except for government vital records documents, like birth and death certificates, or marriage certificates. Notaries aren’t allowed to notarize, make, or certify copies of these; instead, you have to go to the appropriate government agency to get certified copies. For more on that, see Paper Doll‘s post from last year, How to Replace and Organize 7 Essential Government Documents.
HOW CAN YOU PREPARE TO GET SOMETHING NOTARIZED?
First, be sure you know exactly what you need to get notarized and fill in all of the blank spaces (except, as applicable, the signature line).
Next, make an appointment with a notary. While you can sometimes show up at a notary’s office, you wouldn’t want random people showing up to your place of work, unannounced, and have to squeeze them in. Be cool, dude.
Verify the fees you’ll be paying and ask how the notary accepts payment. Notary fees differ by state and notarization type, are set by law for most states, so you can check with your state’s Secretary of State’s office for the basic fees; however, notaries can charge separate fees for travel and for remote services.
Notaries at banks may not charge anything for the service, and notary at companies (like the UPS Store) may allow any of the payment methods the company already accepts for other services. But self-employed notaries are allowed to make up their own payment policies, and might require payment by cash or check; don’t assume they’ll take Venmo.
Bring your photo ID. Remember, the notary’s job is, in part, to verify that signers are who they claim to be, and that can’t be done if the signers do not present valid ID. Usually, a government-issued ID with a photo, like a driver’s license or password, is required.
If someone lacks legal identification, the situation isn’t impossible, but it’s fraught. For example, let’s say that Grandpa is in an assisted living facility, hasn’t driven in a decade, and doesn’t have a passport or a government issued photo ID. In many states, the signer can call upon “credible identifying witnesses,” people willing to swear to the notary that they know Grandpa and that he is who he says he is. But Grandpa’s witnesses are going to have those required forms of identification.
Speaking of ID, make sure the name on your ID matches the name you’re using on the documents you need to have notarized. If you’ve recently gotten divorced and have returned to your “maiden” name, or have married and taken your spouse’s name or hyphenated your names, you’ll need to show ID that reflects that change.
Make sure everyone who needs to sign is available for the appointment. (If someone in your family always shows up late, you might want to “accidentally” tell them a slightly earlier time — or drive them yourself!)
Know what the heck you’re going to be signing and what it means. The notary has to make sure that the signer is willing to sign and fully aware of what they’re signing. Paper Doll shouldn’t have to tell you this, but don’t show up at the notary’s office after a boozy brunch. (In the case of Grandpa, above, you might want to warn him that the notary might ask some questions to make sure he’s mentally alert and not signing under duress, so he’s not offended by the questions.)
Be prepared to sign the notary’s log book, which is also known as a public journal. Most states require that notaries keep a log book or journal of all the notary-related acts they perform. It covers all the nitty-gritty details of the transaction, so if a notarized document goes missing, gets stolen or altered, or anything becomes a matter of legal dispute, the record can be set straight. Plus, it keeps everything so nice and organized.
A few years ago, a friend contacted me and asked if I would serve as a witness so that her elderly mother could get some documents signed and notarized. In addition to having to sign my name on the various documents as a witness, I had to sign the notary’s log book/journal, provide my photo ID, write my driver’s license ID number, and provide my thumbprint (which was less messy than I expected, but made me feel like a character on Law & Order).
WHERE CAN YOU FIND A NOTARY?
Photo by Matthias Süßen, CC BY-SA 4.0 , via Wikimedia Commons
You may assume that because any notary can notarize your document that any notary will, but that’s not the case. For example, several years ago I needed to sign a document for Paper Mommy and have my signature witnessed and notarized.
Most banks provide notary services, and I was delighted to see that Bank of America provides fee-free notary services. So, I went to Bank of America, where I had both personal and business accounts, but once they saw that it was a Power of Attorney document, I was told that bank employees were not allowed to notarize it, as a matter of company policy.
In the end, I got my signature notarized at the UPS Store just up the block from the bank. It felt odd to be getting a legal document notarized next to people buying bubble wrap and making Amazon returns, but the process was quick and easy, and the fee was reasonable.
In addition to banks and credit unions, you may be able to find notary services at any of the following:
- Law firms — Sometimes paralegals and legal secretaries are notaries, and the process will be faster than trying to see an attorney-notary.
- Real Estate firms — Call your agent; if you’re a renter, ask your friends if any of them loved their real estate purchase experience and how they got documents notarized.
- Accountants — You may be out of luck if you file your taxes with H&R Block or TurboTax, but if you have a relationship with an accountant (and aren’t pestering her during tax season), you might get lucky.
- Package shipping stores like the UPS Store (hey, it worked for me) and FedEx Office (which they offer through a virtual service, of which there’s more below)
- AAA — Most regional AAA offices provide free notary services as part of membership. However, AAA can’t notarize business contracts, mortgages, or wills; if you’ve got to notarize an auto sale, Power of Attorney documents, trusts, or affidavits, though, you’ll be fine. You can’t always make appointments at AAA, so you may end up sitting in the lobby for a while until it’s your turn.
- Public libraries — Many library systems have notaries on staff; you may have to go to a branch that is not where you usually borrow, so call to verify which branches have notaries available. The notaries at your library may be limited as to which documents they can notarize; mine can notarize sworn statements, Power of Attorney documents, rental agreements, copy certifications, and more, but can’t notarize real estate transactions, wills, divorce papers, employment verification forms, Homeland Security I-9 Forms, or documents in languages other than English.
- Colleges — If a member of your family attends a college or university, call the bursar’s office. They’re likely to have someone on-staff with notary credentials or will know where to go.
You can also find notaries the old-fashioned way, by searching the Yellow Pages, using a search engine (e.g., type “notary services [your town]” into Google), or searching statewide notary databases.
Weirdly, there does not seem to be a database of notary databases (which feels awfully disorganized of them), so you’ll have to search for your state’s database through a search engine or by looking at your state’s Secretary of State website.
You don’t have to go to the notary; notaries will come to you!
Over the last few decades, mobile notaries have become a thing. The same notaries whom you can visit for services may provide mobile notary services for an additional fee. Type “mobile notary near me” into your favorite search engine.
As I mentioned earlier, when a friend needed to have her mother’s documents signed, witnessed and notarized, my experience as a professional organizer (and resource researcher) came in handy, and I was able to recommend a wonderful Chattanooga notary public. While there was an additional fee for him to travel to my friend’s location, it far outweighed the inconvenience (and likely impossibility) of getting her elderly and infirm mother to the notary’s office.
Thus, you’ll want to weigh the cost of us using a mobile notary against the convenience of having someone come to you.
WHAT IF YOU CAN’T GET TO A NOTARY (AND ONE CAN’T GET TO YOU)?
A notary can’t just notarize a person’s signature over the phone or Zoom. I know. Bummer.
That said, as a result of lessened bureaucracy due to the COVID pandemic, there’s Remote Online Notarization, or RON. (No, not Ron Weasley from Harry Potter, though it really does seem pretty magical.)
Remote online notarization companies connect a signer with commissioned notaries public (yes, that’s the official plural of notary public, like attorneys general or culs-de-sac) who are authorized to notarize documents remotely via a webcam.
When I originally started researching this post, 24 states allowed notaries to do RON; 24 had temporary regulations allowing it during COVID, and two had weird limits. Then Connecticut rescinded authorization but ten more states made it permanent. But last week, the House of Representatives passed the Remote Online Notarization Bill, which (assuming it passes the Senate) should make secure online remote notarization much easier to access.
Two of the best known remote online notarization service providers are Notarize and NotaryCam.
First up, Notarize.
Who knew notarization could be so funny?
Download the iOS or Android version of the Notarize app or use your computer’s browser. Then snap a photo of the document and upload it (or upload a PDF, or drag-and-drop the document onto the computer’s browser). Then provide your proof of identity, and connect to the notary via the platform’s webcame. Pricing for individuals starts at only $25.
NotaryCam is similarly priced at $25 (or $79 if you’re outside the US). Your document has to be a PDF, and while you can use a Mac or PC, if you don’t want to fiddle with plugins, use Chrome or Firefox. When mobile, iOS is fine but NotaryCam sounds pretty iffy about using Android.
Both platforms are secure, legal, and operate 24/7/365. For what it’s worth, NotaryCam seems oriented more toward real estate and other professionals than toward consumers; Notarize is a little more intuitive and aimed toward both a Regular Joe consumer audience as well as professional.
Have you ever had adventures in getting something notarized? Please feel free to share in the comments.
Finally, now that you’ve made it through this master class in notarization, you deserve a little fun. If you watch to the end, you’ll find that Inspector Fenwick of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police could have used the services of a notary to figure out who was whom!
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