Trust & Estate Document Signing
Serving Glendale, Burbank, Pasadena, and the Greater Los Angeles Area
A mobile notary who knows what is in a trust binder, and comes to your kitchen table to work through it
Serving Glendale, Burbank, Pasadena, and the Greater Los Angeles Area
A mobile notary who knows what is in a trust binder, and comes to your kitchen table to work through it
Trust Signing Appointment
Maybe an attorney drafted it and handed you a binder. Maybe you built it through an online service like LegalZoom or Trust & Will, and what you have is a PDF and a page of instructions. Either way, you are now holding a stack of paper where some pages need a notary, some need two witnesses instead, and some need nothing at all. In there is a living trust, a will that is not supposed to be notarized, a power of attorney that is, a health care directive that can go either way, and usually a deed that has to be done exactly right or the county will reject it.
Sorting that out is the job. I am a California Commissioned Notary Public with advanced training in the presentation and execution of trust documents (CNTDA), and this is the part of the work I like most. I will come to you, and I will walk you through the package document by document so you know what you are holding before you sign it.
If you searched for a trust notary, a mobile notary for a living trust, or a notary for trust documents, this is the page for you. If you are an adult child arranging this for a parent, that is a normal call for me to get, and I am glad to coordinate with you rather than making your parent do the scheduling.
Your attorney may have a notary, and if the signing is already scheduled at their office you probably do not need me. Where I come in is when that does not work: a parent who cannot travel, a hospital or care facility, a signer who missed the appointment, an evening or a weekend, or a deed or amendment that surfaces months after the binder was delivered and the firm has moved on.
If it makes the appointment easier, I am glad to coordinate directly with the drafting attorney's office.
These packages come with instructions, not a person. The instructions are usually right about which pages need a notary and which need two witnesses, but nobody is standing there making sure it actually happened that way, and a defect in one of these documents tends to surface years later at the worst possible moment.
Two things worth knowing before we meet. A California will still needs two witnesses and cannot be notarized instead. And a trust does not hold your house until a separate deed transfers it, which some packages include and some sell separately.
What to Expect
A single person's trust package usually runs about an hour. A couple's package runs closer to ninety minutes. Neither is a good thing to rush, so I do not book them back to back.
Pricing
I charge a la carte, the same way I charge for everything else. There is no trust package markup and no quote form to fill out. Your total is the number of notarized signatures plus one flat travel fee, plus a surcharge only if one actually applies.
| Item | Details | Fee |
|---|---|---|
| Notarized Signature | Per signature notarized. This is the California statutory maximum, set by the state, and no notary in California may legally charge more. Rises to $20 on 1/1/2027 under state law. | $15 |
| Travel, Zone 1 | Glendale, Burbank, La Canada Flintridge, La Crescenta, Montrose, Verdugo City, Tujunga, Sunland, Altadena | $45 |
| Travel, Zone 2 | Pasadena, South Pasadena, San Marino, Sierra Madre, Arcadia, Monrovia, Eagle Rock, Highland Park, North Hollywood, Studio City, and nearby | $60 |
| Travel, Zone 3 | Sherman Oaks, Van Nuys, Northridge, Alhambra, Temple City, Los Feliz, Silver Lake, Echo Park, Downtown LA, and nearby | $75 |
| Travel, Zone 4 | Anything beyond Zone 3. Ask and I will quote it before you book. | By quote |
| After-Hours | Mon to Sat 7pm to 9pm, or any time Sunday, mornings included | +$35 |
| Same-Day Rush | Booked and completed the same day | +$35 |
| Hospital / Care Facility | Any signing at a hospital, nursing home, or care facility | +$25 |
| Waiting Fee | After 20 minutes past the scheduled start time | $2/minute |
Two hours is the minimum notice on any appointment. Surcharges stack: a same-day booking that lands on a Sunday carries both the rush and the after-hours surcharge. Full details on the pricing page.
A signature count means nothing until you see it as a number, so here are real ones. Standard-rate hours, no surcharges. Signature counts are typical, and your own package may run a little over or under.
| Typical Appointment | Now | From 1/1/2027 |
|---|---|---|
| Single person's trust package, about 6 signatures, Zone 1 | $135 | $165 |
| Couple's trust package, about 16 signatures, Zone 1 | $285 | $365 |
| Couple's trust package, about 16 signatures, Zone 2 | $300 | $380 |
| Couple's trust package, about 16 signatures, Zone 3 | $315 | $395 |
Due at the time of service. No convenience fee for paying by card.
A Fair Question
You should ask that, and for a lot of documents the honest answer is that you should use the bank. If you have one page that needs a stamp and you are already going to be there on Thursday, go do that. It is free and it is fine.
A trust package is a different situation, and here is where the free option tends to run out:
The notary fee is identical everywhere. California caps it at $15 per signature and nobody, bank or mobile, may charge more. So the free notary is not offering you a cheaper notarization. They are waiving a $15 fee.
What you are paying me for is the travel and the time: a flat $45 to $75 to come to you, on your schedule, and work through the whole binder in one sitting instead of you making two trips and discovering on the second one that the deed was never signed.
None of this is a knock on bank notaries. Most of them are careful and good at their jobs. It is a different job.
The Binder
Packages vary, whether an attorney drafted yours or you built it through an online service, but most California living trust packages contain some version of the following. Below is what each kind of document is and how California treats it. This is general information about categories of documents, which is different from advice about yours. For anything specific to your situation, ask whoever drafted your documents. If you put the package together yourself, that is a question for an attorney.
The main document. It lets you control your assets while you are alive, names who can act for you if you cannot, and says how things are distributed after. You can change it while you are living.
California law does not actually require a trust to be notarized for it to be valid. It is notarized by universal custom, because banks, title companies, and county recorders all expect to see it.
The short version of your trust that a bank or lender is allowed to see. It proves the trust exists without handing over your beneficiaries or your asset list.
This one California does require to be acknowledged, and it has to be signed by every currently acting trustee. If two trustees are named and only one is at the table, the document does not work. Worth checking before I arrive.
The safety net. Anything you did not move into the trust still follows the trust's instructions, though it has to go through probate first.
This is the one most people get wrong, and some notaries get wrong too. A California will is not notarized. It needs two witnesses who are present at the same time and who know the document is a will. California has no notarized self-proving affidavit, so a notarized will with no witnesses can be rejected in probate. I can serve as one of your two witnesses, which is often the practical answer.
Names who can sign your name and handle your money and property if you cannot.
California allows either notarization or two witnesses on this one. Notarizing is the norm, and it is effectively required if the document will ever be used in a real estate transaction. This is also the document that requires a thumbprint in my journal, which catches most people off guard. It is the single most missed item at an estate signing.
Names your health care agent and records your wishes about treatment and end of life care.
California accepts either a notarization or two qualified witnesses here. Either one, not both. The witness eligibility rules are specific and some people are disqualified from serving. One California rule that matters for bedside work: if the person signing is a patient in a skilled nursing facility, a patient advocate or ombudsman has to witness it even if it is also notarized.
Lets your doctors share your medical information with the people you name. Often folded into the health care directive rather than standing alone.
No law requires this one to be notarized. If your package prints a notarial certificate on it, I complete it. If it does not, there is nothing for me to do and adding a stamp would be wrong.
The document that actually moves your house into the trust. Sometimes called a grant deed or a quitclaim deed depending on how it is drawn.
This is the one that has to be right. California requires a deed to be acknowledged before it can be recorded, and it requires a thumbprint in my journal. A trust with no funding deed behind it is a trust that does not hold the house. The Preliminary Change of Ownership form that rides along with the deed is signed but not notarized.
The asset schedule, the funding letter, the guardianship nomination, and the worksheets your package asks you to fill out later: final arrangements, an asset locator, contact lists.
These are signed, not notarized. I will point them out and tell you they are homework rather than quietly stamping something that does not need it. Guardianship nominations in California are valid in a signed writing, with no notary required, and are usually folded into the will.
Where the Line Is
I can tell you what a kind of document is. "This one names your health care agent." "A pour-over will catches whatever did not make it into the trust." "An acknowledgment confirms you signed willingly, a jurat means you are swearing the contents are true." "California wills need two witnesses."
That is general information about a category of document, and it is genuinely useful when you are holding an inch of paper at seven in the evening.
I cannot read your document and tell you what a paragraph means for your family, whether the distribution is a good idea, who you ought to name as successor trustee, or whether you need a document at all. I also cannot fill in a blank, including one I correctly spotted.
The test I use is simple: if answering would mean reading your document and forming a judgment about it, it is a lawyer's question. If an attorney drafted your package, that is who to call. If you put it together yourself, that is the point where an hour of an attorney's time is worth buying. Either way I will say so and we will keep moving.
I do not serve as a witness on a document I am notarizing. Keeping those two roles separate protects the document. On a document that is not being notarized, a California pour-over will for example, I can serve as one of your two required witnesses. That comes up at most trust signings, so tell me when you book and I will plan for it.
If your package needs two witnesses and you cannot produce a second one, say so when you book rather than discovering it at the table. There are ways to solve it, and all of them work better with a day's notice.
Training
I hold advanced training in the presentation and execution of trust documents (CNTDA), a program developed with estate planning attorneys. It is training, not a license and not a legal credential. What it means in practice is that I have worked through a full trust package before yours, I know which pages take a seal and which do not, and I am not going to learn on your paperwork.
I am a California Commissioned Notary Public, bonded, carrying Errors and Omissions insurance, and background screened through Live Scan.
Service Area
I am based in Glendale 91208, up near the 2 and the 210, and the travel zones radiate out from there. Trust signings regularly take me to Glendale, Burbank, La Canada Flintridge, La Crescenta, Montrose, Altadena, Pasadena, South Pasadena, San Marino, Eagle Rock, Studio City, Sherman Oaks, and greater Los Angeles.
Homes, offices, hospitals, rehabilitation centers, and skilled nursing facilities throughout the area. If you are outside Zone 3, ask. I will quote it before you book rather than after.