Home > General and protection mandates
Protection mandates and incapacity mandates in Longueuil.
The Protection Mandate:
For the respect of your dignity and because falling ill or having an accident can happen to anyone.
No one wants to become incapacitated. However, we have no control over an accident or illness. Despite popular belief, your spouse or child is not automatically responsible for your care and the management of your assets in the event of a problem. In the absence of appropriate documents, it will be necessary to open a protective regime, such as a guardianship, which involves legal proceedings, the intervention of the Curateur public du Québec and the convening of a family meeting. The procedure is long, expensive and offers no guarantee as to the choice or the competence of the chosen person.
The protection mandate is a document specifically intended to ensure respect for your person and the administration of your property in the event of illness or accident. By signing your mandate, you are assured that your wishes will be respected. Only the people you designate will take care of you, in the way you determine.
Protection mandate
Several names have been given to the protection mandate: mandate in case of incapacity, power of attorney in case of disability, living will, end-of-life mandate, protection mandate, etc. The protection mandate is a document in which you designate the people who will be best suited to ensure that you are given adequate personal and medical care and to ensure the administration of your property during your incapacity, whether it be temporary or permanent.
Incapacity is, among other things, the inability to act, to reason in an informed manner or to communicate one’s wishes to those around them
Power of attorney
A power of attorney is a document that allows someone to act temporarily over your property, in your place and on your behalf while you are still capable of caring for your property. For example, a banking power of attorney can help you if you are temporarily unable to travel or are traveling. The designated person may sign checks or make deposits into your account.
However, the power of attorney becomes invalid if you become incapacitated. In order for someone to gain access to your accounts again, a guardianship regime will have to be opened, with all the costs and delays that this entails.
The protection mandate is the only document whereby someone else can manage your assets and make decisions about your protection if you are declared incapable.
Homologation of the protection mandate
Does the protection mandate automatically apply if my mandataries or my relatives believe that I am incapacitated? The answer is no.
To ensure your protection, a mandate must be verified, that is to say probated, to become effective. Your incapacity must be certified by a doctor and a social worker. The notary ensures that he prepares the relevant documents and produces the mandate at the court registry in order to obtain a judgment. The type of mandate as well as the specific circumstances of the file may modify the process to follow.
Consult our specialized notaries for more information and to guide you through the steps.
Tutorship for adults
When there is no protection mandate, it is the law that will provide for the regime to ensure the representation of the person: Tutorship. The tutorship will be adapted, modulated, according to the residual capacities of the adult.
A tutorship council will be created to supervise the tutor and ensure the proper management of the property. This council will receive reports each year concerning the administration of the property by the tutor. The council must be consulted in making certain decisions provided for by the law or by the special regime.
Our notaries can answer your questions regarding the establishment of such a regime or its administration.
Tutorship for minors
Parents are by default guardian of their minor children. This is a legal guardianship. However, if both parents die, a tutor must be appointed: this person will be replacing the parents for decisions concerning the minor child. This appointment can be made by will or in the absence of a will, by the court, which will take into consideration the opinion of the council of allied relatives and friends.
If a child receives an amount of money exceeding $40,000.00, the parents are required to set up a tutorship council. The role of this council is to verify the administration of the minor child’s assets.
Do not hesitate to contact our specialized notaries for more information.
Sound advice! Where to begin?
- Incomplete mandate: When the disease is already there, it is too late to fill the gaps of an incomplete mandate. The notary ensures that all the legal elements are included in your mandate and that the document is indisputable.
- Speed: As soon as proof of invalidity is obtained, the mandate can be sent to the Court for homologation. There is no need to trace witnesses and have them intervene to attest to their signature.
- Cost: No need for additional procedures other than the homologation by the court.
- Conservation: The mandate will never be misplaced, lost or destroyed.
- No, the banking power of attorney becomes invalid if you are declared incapacitated.
- The banking power of attorney is only valid at that particular bank and cannot be used to take care of your property and debts like the payments for housing, taxes, investments, etc.
- The notaries at Lettre & Brown are specialized in personal and family law.
- Our professionals are held by standards of practice and supported by an efficient technical team.
Notaries who offer this service
We are your family notaries. We can help you.
Our services are available in our offices or remotely. Do not hesitate to contact us.