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Provided in Anticipation of Your Inability to Ensure Respect for Your Wishes
It Can Happen to Anyone
No one likes to think of the prospect of losing the ability to decide for themselves. Yet no one is immune to a serious accident or illness that could deprive them of the use of their intellectual faculties. If such a misfortune were to befall you, who would take care of you and your property?
MAIL YOUR RENT, GO SHOPPING, MAKE AN APPOINTMENT WITH YOUR DENTIST...
When you are autonomous, lucid and healthy, you see to your own affairs. It is hard to imagine that one day you could become incapable of performing these routine tasks. And yet...
PROTECTION REGIMES
The court may, following a motion to that effect, initiate or revise a protection regime.
A notary who has been accredited to act on the matter by
his professional order may also be asked to institute or review a protection
regime. The notary, after following all the procedures established by law,
will draw up a notarial record of operations and conclusions and file an
authentic copy with the registry at the competent court. A court judgment
will grant or dismiss the conclusions of this report.
The protection regime will determine the nature and
extent of the moral and material protection to be afforded to an
incapacitated person of full age and designate the person empowered to
represent or assist him. Depending on the degree of incapacity of the person
of full age, there will be a system of curatorship, guardianship or an
advisor to the person of full age. The nature of this plan will be subject
to mandatory reassessment in accordance with the provisions of the Act.
Who will be entrusted with the task of representing or
assisting you? What type of protection regime will be instituted? Wouldn’t
you like to decide this for yourself?
THE MANDATE GIVEN IN ANTICIPATION OF INCAPACITY
In anticipation of a foreseeable incapacity, we ourselves can now choose the person who will take care of our person and our property.
Indeed, the law allows a sane person, the mandator, to
designate in a document called the “mandate in case of incapacity” the
person who will look after his welfare and the administration of his
property in the event that the person becomes unfit to do so him or herself.
This trusted person is called a “mandatary”.
What a relief to know that a reliable and freely chosen
person (eg., a spouse, brother, sister, close friend) can legally make
important decisions on our behalf!
HOW DOES IT WORK?
In order to be fully effective, the mandate must be as complete and precise as possible, give extended powers to the mandatary and provide for the replacement of the mandatary in the case where, for example, the mandatary needs to resign, becomes unfit to act or dies. If so desired, a person can even choose a mandatary responsible for the welfare of his person and another to take care of his property, when the complexity of the estate justifies it. There are also provisions in the terms of reference to ensure a painless, natural death, to provide for organ donation, and so on.
Ideally, the mandate should be written up before a
notary. Indeed, the notarized form allows the mandator to obtain all
information and advice concerning the action he intends to take from a legal
professional: its usefulness, consequences, the formalities of its entry
into force, etc. But the mandate can also be made privately, that is to say
signed before two witnesses who have no interest in the act. The witnesses
must also be able to ascertain the ability of the mandator to act when he
signs the mandate.
However, a notarized mandate provides greater security
since it is difficult to challenge. The notary can testify that the
signatory understood the meaning and the scope of the mandate and that he
signed this document while fully sound of mind. In addition, the principal
and the mandatary can obtain as many copies of this mandate as necessary
since the notary remains the custodian of the original signed before him.
THE REGISTER OF MANDATES: FOR BETTER PROTECTION
Quebec notaries have a centralized registration system to ensure that your mandate is easy to find so that you can ensure respect for your wishes. Once your mandate has been signed before the notary, the latter will register it in the Register of Mandates held by the Chambre des notaires.
Similar to the Register of
Wills, the Register of Mandates has certain advantages:
WHAT IF YOU CHANGE YOUR MIND?
Over time, situations change. The person you chose as a young adult may not have the same importance to you at middle age. No problem! As long as you are sound of mind, you can always, at any time, revoke a mandate and choose to make another one.
THE EXECUTION OF THE MANDATE
If you become incapacitated, your mandatary will have to ensure that the mandate is effective. He will need to establish the proof of your incapacity by means of a medical and psychosocial evaluation and to demonstrate that you have validly consented to this mandate.
To do this, your mandatary may choose to go directly to
the court and seek a judgment.
In a much simpler manner, your mandatary may choose to
present a request to a notary accredited to act on the matter by his
professional order to see that such a mandate takes effect. The notary,
after following all the procedures established by law, will draw up a
notarized record of operations and conclusions and file an authentic copy
with the registry of the competent court. A judgment of the court will grant
or dismiss the conclusions of this report. It is only after obtaining the
judgment confirming the notary’s report that the mandatary will be able to
fulfill his role.
The effects of this mandate cease when the court finds
that the person having given the mandate has once again become capable of
managing their own affairs.
DUTIES OF THE MANDATARY
Your mandatary has some important responsibilities.
Your mandatary is the person
called upon to give consent to the health care you will receive:
He must also administer your
property:
He also ensures your physical well-being:
The mandatary cannot resign before being replaced by
another mandatary (if the mandate provides for the possibility of replacing
the resigning mandatary by another person) or before asking for the
institution of a protection regime.
The resigning mandatary must
report on his or her actions.
FOR WHOM?
New lifestyles, the advent of reconstituted families,
prolonged life expectancies, and the remoteness of family members all
contribute to the need for appointing a mandatary in anticipation of
eventual incapacity.
While it is advantageous for
all to avail themselves of this possibility, the following persons have a
special interest in doing so:
Do not wait: the mandate in anticipation of incapacity will guarantee your peace of mind.
Source : Chambre des notaires du Québec (Translation)
Consult your notary, who leaves nothing to chance.