Notarizations for Advanced Directives

Santa Barbara Mobile Notary provides notarizations for a living will and medical power of attorney in the form of an advanced health care directive. We have a great deal of experience with Advanced Health Care Directives and can notarize the document at your home, office, coffee shop, or at Cottage Hospital.

In California, your advanced care directive documents your health care wishes and names a trusted person to make health care decisions on your behalf when you cannot make them yourself.

After you create your advanced directive it can be notarized by a notary public. If the person signing the advanced directive lives in a skilled nursing facility, there are often requirements that it be witnessed by a patient advocate or ombudsperson as well -- even if the document is notarized.

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We are not attorneys and strongly urge you to see one if you have any specific questions about this kind of document, who can or needs to witness the signing, etc. We cannot provide the forms although they are easily available online for you to download and fill out yourself -- and we cannot answer questions about the advanced directive other than how the notarization is conducted and our role related to it.

What Happens at a Notary Signing

Once you have created the document, we show up at your home, office, coffee shop, or even Cottage Hospital at the appointed time and date, dressed professionally and ready to notarize the document. The person signing would need to have a current driver’s license, passport, or other government-issued photo ID. We ascertain whether the signer is of sound mind, witness the signing, and notarize the document with our seal. The signer also signs and is fingerprinted in our Record of Notarial Acts. You keep the original and are free to make copies of it for relevant parties if needed. If the forms and signer are ready, the process rarely takes longer than 20 - 30 minutes.