"Did You Know....?" Missouri
Missouri Facts About Notaries, Their Commission, and Their Duties
Published November 20, 2025
What or who grants new and renewing notary commissions to a person?
Depending on the state, the individual or entity that grants a notary commission to a person is commonly referred to as the “commissioning officer,’’ “appointing officer” or the “commissioning entity” or “commissioning office,” as appropriate.
Across the U.S., state notary laws dictate the specific individual or authority empowered to grant a new or renewal notary public commission. That is, Missouri law dictates that the Missouri Secretary of State actually appoints each notary public to office. In other states, that power might belong to the Governor or Lieutenant Governor, a county clerk, the state’s Department of Licensing, and so on.
Are the powers of a notary public the same in all states?
Certain notarial acts are so common and necessary that notaries in all states are authorized to perform them. These are: (1) acknowledgments; (2) verifications on oath or affirmation (also called “jurats”); and (3) verbal oaths or affirmations (for example, when someone takes a verbal oath when being sworn-into public office).
Other notarial acts that a Missouri notary may perform include signature witnessing, certifying document copies (subject to state-specific requirements and restrictions), and certifying that a tangible copy of an electronic record is an accurate copy.
Can notaries in Missouri charge any fee they want?
For performing any notarial act, Missouri notaries may charge up to the fee(s) specified by their law and/or administrative rules. Charging excessive fees for a notarial act violates the notary’s governing law and/or administrative rules, and leads to disciplinary sanctions under those laws and/or administrative rules.
Missouri notaries may charge additional fees for mileage to travel for performing a notarial act, but those fees must be disclosed and agreed-to in advance; the notary must explain that the travel fee is separate from the notarial-act fee and neither mandated nor specified by law; and the travel fee should be line-itemed separately from the statutory notarial-act fee. Notaries who charge fees should always discuss them completely, and be sure the client understands them, before proceeding with a notarial act.
Missouri notaries are required to “keep, maintain, protect and provide for law inspection a chronological journal of notarial acts.” In this “permanently bound” journal, the notary must record all information specified by law, administrative rules and recommended by the Secretary of State. Use of the American Society of Notaries’ All-States Recordbook of Notarial Acts allows a Missouri notary to meet these requirements, provides credible evidence of the fees the notary charged, and greatly simplifies the chore of calculating and reporting income earned from performing notarizations.
Are Missouri notaries public required to receive training?
Before actually applying for a Missouri notary public commission, each applicant must read the Secretary of State’s “Missouri Notary Handbook” (available here) and pass the examination required under Missouri law. To assist in obtaining the knowledge needed to pass the examination, the Secretary of State has approved certain notary public training courses, including the notary public education course offered by American Society of Notaries.
Notary public commission applicants must also meet the qualifications to hold the office; see the qualifications to become a Missouri Notary Public here.
Why does a notary public want me to sign their “register” or “journal”?
Notaries in Missouri are required to record all their official acts in a journal (“recordbook”) designed for that purpose, such as the All-States Recordbook of Notarial Acts. The information provided in a recordbook entry for a specific notarial act is credible evidence of the facts of that notarization, and is admissible in a court of law. Even when journals (recordbooks) are not required, they are strongly recommended as an indispensable tool for notaries public.
Why does notarization of a document matter?
For centuries, notarial acts have been essential to the function of commerce and personal affairs. Documents executed (signed) before a notary are presumed to be validly executed and factual, unless proven otherwise.
The ongoing value of notarization is proven in how little a notarial act’s execution and assurances have changed… even though today’s approved methods of notarizing include not only ink-signed paper documents, but electronic documents and signatures involving physically present and remotely present signers.
Notarizations assure relying parties that the persons or entities named in a document indeed appeared before a notarial officer, were identified, and signed and/or acknowledged their voluntary signing of the document. Notarization also enables a named signer of a document to swear or affirm that the document is true.
Because the assurances provided by notarization are so important but also so fundamentally simple, the effects of a properly executed notarization are the same whether the underlying document is paper or electronic. This is a remarkable fact about a process that has been relied upon for centuries.
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