Business owners and Secretary of the State back raising notary fee, modernizing trade-name registry

Business owners and the secretary of the state told the Judiciary Committee on March 4 that modest statutory changes would help maintain public access to notary services and modernize business registration.

"My name is Dan Buchanan. I own multiple UPS stores here in Connecticut," said Dan Buchanan, who testified he and other franchise owners offer notary services as a convenience and that the current $5 fee "simply doesn't cover the real cost we bear." Buchanan testified there are 44 UPS stores across the state that provide notary services and warned that if the fee does not change, some stores could stop offering notarizations, making it harder for citizens to get legal documents signed.

Christopher Drake, director of business services for the secretary of the state, told the committee the office proposes to raise the notary fee from $5 to $10 and explained other updates in Senate Bills 294 and 262. Drake said his office has operated a centralized trade-name registry since 01/01/2025 for filings thereafter and expects older local filings to remain with town clerks until they expire on 12/31/2029. He described the centralized registry as intended to make trade-name searches fully searchable online and to reduce fraudulent filings that look like official government documents.

Committee members asked for concrete examples of how town clerks would benefit and whether older trade-name filings would be searchable; Drake said post-2025 filings are searchable on business.ct.gov and that the office offered to help towns input filings but does not have resources to backfill all pre-2025 records.

No vote was taken on fee changes during the hearing.