NSA Client Communication & Confidentiality 3 — Questions and Answers
Question 1: A borrower becomes upset during signing and tells the NSA personal details about a financial hardship. How should the NSA handle this information?
- Include it in the status update report to the title company
- Listen empathetically but keep the information confidential and do not document it in reports (Correct answer)
- Share it with the lender so they understand the borrower's situation
- Post about the situation anonymously online for advice
Correct answer: Listen empathetically but keep the information confidential and do not document it in reports
Personal information shared by a borrower during a signing must remain confidential and should not be included in status reports or shared with other parties.
Question 2: Which communication method is considered the most secure for sending a borrower's appointment confirmation details?
- A group text including all parties
- A secured or encrypted email limited to scheduling logistics (Correct answer)
- A public calendar invite with the borrower's full name and address
- A voicemail left on a shared business phone line
Correct answer: A secured or encrypted email limited to scheduling logistics
Encrypted or secured email used only for logistics is the most appropriate method for appointment confirmations involving borrower information.
Question 3: An NSA is asked by a friend who works at a title company to confirm whether a mutual acquaintance recently refinanced their home. The NSA performed that signing. The NSA should:
- Confirm since the friend works in the industry
- Refuse to confirm or deny any information about any past signing client (Correct answer)
- Confirm but ask the friend to keep it private
- Check whether the acquaintance would mind before responding
Correct answer: Refuse to confirm or deny any information about any past signing client
NSAs must never disclose information about past clients regardless of the requester's relationship to the industry or to the NSA.
Question 4: An NSA arrives at a signing and the borrower states they did not receive the pre-closing disclosure documents. What is the NSA's appropriate response?
- Provide explanations of all documents from memory
- Inform the borrower this is outside your role and advise them to contact their lender immediately (Correct answer)
- Proceed with signing anyway since the documents are present at the table
- Call the lender on speakerphone and read the documents aloud
Correct answer: Inform the borrower this is outside your role and advise them to contact their lender immediately
The NSA should not explain legal or financial documents and should direct the borrower to the lender for any pre-closing disclosure questions.
Question 5: Under the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act (GLBA), NSAs who handle nonpublic personal information are required to:
- Report all borrower financial details to federal regulators annually
- Implement safeguards to protect NPI from unauthorized access or disclosure (Correct answer)
- Store NPI for a minimum of seven years in encrypted databases
- Obtain written consent from borrowers before each signing
Correct answer: Implement safeguards to protect NPI from unauthorized access or disclosure
The GLBA requires that entities handling NPI implement reasonable safeguards to protect that information from unauthorized access.
Question 6: A borrower calls the NSA two weeks after signing to request a copy of their closing documents. The NSA should:
- Email the documents immediately as a courtesy
- Explain that document copies should be requested directly from the lender or title company (Correct answer)
- Charge a fee and provide the copies from their records
- Refer the borrower to a local notary supply store
Correct answer: Explain that document copies should be requested directly from the lender or title company
NSAs do not retain copies of loan documents and should direct borrowers to the appropriate lender or title company for document copies.
Question 7: During a signing, the borrower asks the NSA to witness a side agreement between them and the seller. The NSA should:
- Notarize the side agreement as part of the same appointment
- Decline, as side agreements are outside the NSA's authorized scope and could compromise the transaction (Correct answer)
- Accept if the side agreement is handwritten
- Complete the signing first, then notarize the side agreement separately
Correct answer: Decline, as side agreements are outside the NSA's authorized scope and could compromise the transaction
NSAs must stay within their authorized scope; notarizing undisclosed side agreements can jeopardize the loan transaction and violates professional boundaries.
NSA Client Communication & Confidentiality 3
A borrower becomes upset during signing and tells the NSA personal details about a financial hardship.
How should the NSA handle this information?