Remote Online Notarization in Massachusetts

The 2023 law authorizes a Massachusetts notary public to perform a notarial act for a remotely located signer using communication technology that lets the notary and the signer see and hear each other in real time. It took effect January 1, 2024, and it is permanent, unlike the pandemic-era emergency law. Massachusetts was among the last states to adopt permanent RON.

The statute does three things at once. It defines the technology and identity-proofing standards a remote notarization must meet. It conditions a notary’s ability to perform RON on registering with the Secretary of the Commonwealth, completing approved training and identifying the platform the notary will use. And it directs the Secretary to adopt the standards, approve the training and set up the notification process. Until that administrative work is done, the statutory permission has nothing to attach to; a notary who performs RON without registration is acting outside the statute.

What a remote notarization will look like under the Massachusetts statute

• The notary must be physically located in Massachusetts at the time of the act. The signer may be anywhere in the United States, and outside the country in the circumstances the statute allows.
• Identity is established by the notary’s personal knowledge, by credential analysis of a government ID plus identity proofing (knowledge-based authentication questions), or by a credible witness who appears by the same technology.
• The notarial certificate must state that the act was performed using communication technology.
• The notary applies an electronic signature and electronic seal that are tamper-evident, and keeps an electronic journal of remote acts.
• An audio-video recording of the session must be made and retained for the period the statute sets.
• Any document involving a mortgage or conveyance of title to real property must be notarized by an attorney, or by a notary under an attorney’s direct supervision.

Those are the statutory outlines. The Secretary’s standards fill in the details: which platforms are approved, what the training covers, how the electronic seal is formatted, and how registration works. Where this page is unsure of a section number it says “under Massachusetts law” rather than guess.

Massachusetts has authorized, allowed to expire, and re-authorized remote notarization over six years. The sequence explains why “RON is legal in Massachusetts” and “you can get a RON in Massachusetts” are different statements.

Massachusetts is an attorney-closing state: conveyancing and mortgage closings are the practice of law here, and the 2023 RON statute carried that principle into remote notarization. Any remote notarization of a document involving a mortgage or a conveyance of title to real property must be performed by an attorney or by a notary acting under an attorney’s direct supervision. Massachusetts is unusual among the states in writing that requirement into its RON law.

The practical effect is that RON will not create an independent remote loan-signing industry in Massachusetts the way it has in Texas, Florida or Virginia. A deed, mortgage, mortgage discharge or refinance package will still move through the closing attorney, whether the signer is in a conference room or on a video call. Hanson Webb, as an NNA Certified Signing Agent, supports closing attorneys, lenders and title companies as the notary at in-person signings; he does not conduct closings, and under RON that division of roles stays the same. Our loan signing agent page describes how that support works today.

Online platforms connect signers with notaries commissioned in states where RON is fully operational, such as Virginia, Texas and Florida. Massachusetts generally recognizes notarial acts performed by notaries commissioned in other states under Massachusetts law, so an out-of-state RON is not automatically void here. Whether it is accepted depends entirely on who receives the document.

Registries of Deeds and the Land Court have been cautious about electronically notarized instruments while the Secretary’s own RON process is incomplete, and most registries continue to expect wet-ink notarizations for recording. Massachusetts courts, banks and insurers set their own policies, and many still require in-person notarization. Foreign authorities receiving an apostilled document almost always need a paper original with an ink seal. Before you pay for an out-of-state RON, call the registry, court, bank, agency or consulate that will receive the document and ask whether an electronically notarized, out-of-state version will be accepted. If the answer is anything other than a clear yes, in-person notarization is the safe choice. Our comparison of a mobile notary vs. online notary in Massachusetts walks through the decision document by document.

A daughter in Florida needs her mother in Lowell to sign a power of attorney

The daughter searched for an online notary because she could not fly up. The signer, though, is the mother, who is in Lowell, 85, and uncomfortable with video calls. The document will be used at a Massachusetts bank and possibly at the Middlesex North Registry of Deeds. A mobile visit to the mother’s home resolved it: Hanson confirmed her identity and willingness in person, the family brought its own witnesses because the form called for them, and the bank accepted the wet-ink acknowledgment without question. A Zone 2 fee from $179 covered travel and the first seal.

A startup founder wants a board consent notarized from a laptop in Cambridge

The founder assumed RON was available because it is in most states. The consent was going to a lender for a line of credit. We explained the Secretary’s current status, and the founder chose an in-person signing at the company’s Kendall Square office the next morning, at a Zone 3 fee from $250. Had the lender accepted an out-of-state RON, that would have been the founder’s call to make with the lender; the lender’s policy, not the notary’s preference, decides.

A Brazilian national in Worcester needs a document for use in Brazil

An online platform offered a same-day RON with a Texas notary. The document needed a Massachusetts apostille, which the Secretary of the Commonwealth issues only for Massachusetts notarizations with an ink signature and seal the office can match to a commission record. An electronic seal from Texas would have been apostilled in Texas, if at all, and the Brazilian consulate wanted paper. An in-person notarization in Worcester followed by submission to the Commissions Section in Boston for the $6 state fee plus our service fee was the only path that worked. See our Massachusetts apostille service page for the full process.

We check the Secretary of the Commonwealth’s Remote Online Notarization page in the Commissions Section regularly against the statements on this page, and we update it when the Secretary publishes the training, the notification form or an approved platform list. Statutory references are to Chapter 2 of the Acts of 2023 and M.G.L. c.222; where this page is unsure of a section it says so rather than cite one. When Massachusetts RON becomes operational we will assess whether to add it to our services and for which documents, with the same rule we apply to everything else: a notarization you cannot use is not a service.

Hire Mobile Notary is a service of Neighborhood Parcel, 1215 Main St, Suite 115, Tewksbury, MA 01876. Hanson Webb is background screened, bonded and E&O insured, BBB A+ accredited, with 18+ years as a Massachusetts notary. We are not a law firm and this page is informational only; it does not tell you whether a particular notarization will be accepted for your purpose. Consult a licensed Massachusetts attorney for legal advice about your document, and check sec.state.ma.us for the current official RON status.