Most notaries know about E&O insurance. It covers your mistakes. Crime insurance is different. It covers money and property that gets stolen. Title companies and signing services are asking for it more often, and some contracts now require it.
Here are four kinds of loss a crime policy is built for. Every policy is worded differently, so read yours before you rely on any of this.
1. Employee dishonesty
This is the main reason most businesses buy crime insurance. It covers theft by the people who work for you.
- An employee takes cash out of the till or the fee envelope.
- Someone on your team writes company checks to themselves.
- A contracted notary keeps signing fees that belong to your business.
- A worker moves money out of the business bank account.
2. Theft from your notary business
This covers money and property taken from you by an outsider, not an employee.
- Cash or checks stolen from your office or your car.
- Someone breaks in and takes your equipment.
- A courier or a stranger walks off with a fee payment.
3. Theft from a client
You go into homes and offices. You are alone with people and with their property. If a client says something went missing while you or your notary was there, this is the part of the policy that responds.
- A client says cash or jewelry went missing during a signing.
- A notary you sent out is accused of taking something from a home.
- Property is taken from a title office or an escrow office you visited.
This one matters for signing agencies. You are responsible for the people you send out, even when they are independent contractors.
4. Funds transfer fraud
This is the fastest growing loss in the notary and title world. Someone tricks a bank into moving money, or tricks you into sending it.
- A fake email that looks like it came from a title company changes the wiring instructions.
- A criminal gets into your email and sends payment instructions as you.
- Someone uses stolen account details to pull money out of your business account.
- A caller pretends to be your bank and talks a staff member into approving a transfer.
Note the difference between this and cyber liability. Cyber pays for a data breach and the cost of telling people their information was exposed. Funds transfer fraud pays for the money that left the account.
Who should think about it
- Signing agencies that send out employees or contracted notaries.
- Any notary who handles cash, checks or client property.
- Anyone who receives or acts on wiring instructions by email.
- Any notary whose contract with a lender, title company or bank asks for crime coverage.
Crime insurance is usually quoted alongside professional liability and general liability rather than on its own. If a contract has asked you for it, send us the requirement and we will work from what the contract actually says.