In order to get a Letter of Authority, you must open a Probate Estate and petition the Probate Court to become the Estate's Personal Representative. Once the court appoints you as the Personal Representative, you will be issued your Letter of Authority.
An Apostille or an Authentication certifies the authenticity of the signature, seal and position of the official who has executed, issued or certified a copy of a public document.
All other documents that have been notarized by another source must have an apostille prepared by the Office of the Great Seal in Lansing. The Office of the Great Seal maintains records of all persons who are notaries, and that office will issue an apostille to authenticate the notary's signature.
When a document is to be used in another country, it may be necessary to have the document authenticated. This is known either as an “apostille” or “certificate of authentication.” Examples of documents that are frequently authenticated by the Department of State are birth, marriage, and death certificates.
An Apostille (Certificate) is a square approximately 9cm long, usually stamped onto the reverse side of a single page public document. It is formatted into numbered fields to allow certified data to be identified by the receiving country, regardless of the official language of the issuing country.
An apostille is issued by your Secretary of State's office or Notary commissioning agency. The single apostille is the only certification needed. Once prepared and verified, the apostille is attached to and sent along with the notarized documents. Notaries cannot issue apostilles themselves.
What is an apostille? An apostille is a form of authentication that seeks to simplify the process of legalizing and authenticating public documents so that they can be recognized internationally in foreign countries that are members of the 1961 Hague Convention Treaty.
In the United States, the Apostille certification process is verified by the Secretary of State for Non Federal Government issued documents and/or the US Department of State for documents issued by US Federal Government agencies.