The Deployment POA and the Pre-Printed Name
A refinance for the Doe family. John Doe is deployed overseas; his wife Jane holds a general power of attorney and intends to sign for him. The package contains a Deed of Trust with an acknowledgment certificate, and a Signature/Name Affidavit whose certificate reads 'Subscribed and sworn to before me' above a signature line pre-printed 'John Doe.' Jane plans to sign 'Jane Doe, attorney-in-fact for John Doe.' The certificate asks you to state the affiant is 'personally known to me'; you met Jane for the first time tonight and identified her with a valid passport. The lender's closing instructions state that the Note must be executed personally by the borrower and that no power-of-attorney signatures will be accepted on the Note.
1. Walk through the defects in the Name Affidavit as it was presented to you. Can you complete it?
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Several problems stack up:
- The certificate is false as written. You do not personally know Jane; you identified her by passport. Signing 'personally known to me' misstates your evidence.
- The document answers a different question than the certificate. A jurat is an oath administered to the affiant about statements the affiant is competent to make. A pre-printed 'John Doe' signature line invites a signature that, on its face, purports to be John's.
- You cannot silently convert the certificate. Changing a jurat into an acknowledgment is a legal decision about what the receiving party requires, not a notarial choice.
What you can do: notarize only what is true and only in a proper form. Escalate to title and the lender, request a corrected affidavit or a separate certificate naming Jane as attorney-in-fact, and never fill in or alter substantive language on the document itself.
2. How do you handle the Note, and what do you tell Jane when she says she will simply sign John's name?
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The Note is outside your authority to fix. The closing instructions bar POA signatures on it; the loan as structured cannot close on Jane's signature alone. Your job is to flag it, not to solve it: stop, notify the signing company and title in writing, and let the lender decide (re-draw, obtain John's signature through whatever channels the lender permits, or cancel).
On signing John's name: refuse flatly. Signing another person's name without authority, and then presenting it for notarization, is forgery, and it converts a document error into a criminal exposure for both of you. Signing as attorney-in-fact is different from signing the principal's name, and even the AIF route is unavailable here because the lender prohibited it.
Also check what the Deed of Trust requires. POA execution of a security instrument is often accepted, but the POA itself generally must be reviewed by title and recorded. That is a title/lender call, not a notary call.