In this first episode dedicated to the notary for seniors, we discuss the subject of power of attorney with Louis Sirois, CEO of Visavie, and Stéphanie Roy of ETTIC Société Notariale.
Episode 1 of this new series of training capsules focuses on the power of attorney. It allows us to authorize a person to act on our behalf. The power of attorney is used for a person of sound mind, whereas the mandate of protection is used for a person who has lost his faculties. But we will see that in the next episode.
Notary: a short definition
As a lawyer of agreement and public officer, the notary is particularly well placed to help seniors and their loved ones make decisions or settle a conflict.
Assisted by an expertise that allows him to anticipate the problems that seniors may encounter along the way, the notary must guide them towards the best possible solutions while respecting the interests of both parties.
His or her duty to advise ensures that all parties involved are respected and that their interests are defended, in a transparent manner, in order to best assist seniors during these trying and stressful times.
English subtitles available
Transcript:
So, hello everyone, welcome to one of Visavie’s training capsules. Today, we are with Stéphane Roy from the ETTIC Société Notariale group and he is going to talk to us about three subjects. I’m going to ask him about power of attorney, the mandate of protection and the will.
So, without further ado, Stephanie, thank you for being here. It’s so appreciated. A young female notary, we’re so happy. So, the first point we want to discuss is this famous power of attorney that people know a little bit about, but not so much.
So, what is it, Stephanie? A power of attorney? What do we do with it?
A power of attorney, we’re talking about a general power of attorney, it’s a person, often an elder in your case, who will appoint another person, the proxy, to give him powers to represent him in his daily life transactions.
Because, at a certain point, the person does not necessarily want to take care of it himself. They won’t be available to move around or whatever. So, it’s this proxy that has to be able to do a bank transaction, take care of the house, the investments, all the assets of the elderly person, she’s going to be able to manage them, administer them.
So if I don’t have the time, I find I have less talent. We can appoint one of my children, a close friend.
Yes, a close friend that you trust. That person there who will take good care of you, of your things, of your transactions as I was saying, you trust that person there, you can name him. You can even name two people. Technically, if you think the two of them would work well together, one is a little bit busier or something like that.
The word you say to yourself twice is trust. I think that’s important. I really do.
We tell ourselves one day we’re going to try to save some money. We can try to do it on our own. I went to the Internet and you can see that there are a multitude of forms that exist. So, do we do it ourselves or do we use a notary for seniors to do it?
Yes, we recommend using a notary for seniors, but not just because we are notaries that we recommend it. It is safe. We can go and do it ourselves, write it down in a paper at home, sign a form that we find online. But often it’s going to be something very general. We won’t think about planning everything, whereas if we go see a notary, he will first advise us in the drafting of all this. So we’ll make sure to foresee all our needs.
And also, the notary will make sure that you understand all the points of the power of attorney. So you’re going to be well covered, understand everything. No problem with that. And then, on top of that, the issuer is going to make sure that they keep the power of attorney. So, if you ever need a copy to give to your proxy or to other people at the bank, for example, there will be no problem for that. Because if you do it yourself, it can be a little more complex.
What I liked because I did it with the notary, with my dad, and with my brother. It is to have the explanations on questions. And there, you have someone, a professional who is able to help you like you
Exactly, rather than searching through the Internet, it’s better to talk to someone who knows.
Stephanie, if I become incapacitated, I have made a power of attorney with my children for example and I become incapacitated. What happens with this document?
The power of attorney is valid as long as you are fit. So it is certain that once the incapacity is reached, i.e. declared by a doctor, the power of attorney will no longer be valid.
What do I have to do at this point? Either you have made a protection mandate with a notary or by yourself. Either that will come into play at that point. Or, if you have not made a protection mandate, your family, one of your relatives, will ask for the opening of a protection regime for you. So that will take a little longer than if you have a mandate.
If I find myself in a situation where I have, I have made a power of attorney. Again with my kids or somebody is doing this, and there’s somebody abusing their power of attorney. What happens?
Indeed, choose a person whom we trust, but it can always happen that the person surprises us and it seems to have more abuse. So, either we ourselves notice that the person does not manage our business very well or someone around us notices that.
So it will always be possible to revoke the power of attorney at any time. There is no problem with that.
Fantastic. Thank you Stephanie, that’s very nice.
So folks, we’ve covered the first topic which is power of attorney in our senior notary series. We’re going to cover the mandate of protection in the next topic. Then you will see at the bottom of the screen, you will have the contact information for the firm where Stephanie works. So feel free to contact them. If you have any questions, you need to get the facts straight, you call Stephanie!
Thank you very much.
