The Protection Mandate is a contract that organizes the future protection of a person in the event that he or she is vulnerable and unable to take care of his or her own personal affairs.
Indeed, when an elderly person is no longer capable of making decisions for himself, the Protection Mandate allows him to anticipate his future protection. It is a document in which a person plans how he or she wants to be protected the day he or she is no longer able to manage his or her affairs alone.
Episode 2: The Protection Mandate
In this second episode, again with Louis Sirois, CEO of Visavie, and Stéphanie Roy, of ETTIC Société Notariale, we discuss the protective mandate. In this video, we will see why this document is so necessary. We will also see what incapacity is, what the mandatary is and what powers can be given to them.
English subtitles available
➡ You can also find the first episode on power of attorney right here!
Transcript
So, welcome to our second Visavie video today on the legal aspect. Item number two of which is the mandate of protection. We are with Stéphanie Robin Stéphanie who is with Groupe ETTIC notary company based in Laval and Montreal.So, we are going to cover a subject that is a little less known. Which is this mandate of protection, formerly the mandate of incapacity. So, what I’m going to ask you, Stéphanie, is to tell us a little bit about this mandate of protection?
What does it do? Because we talked about the power of attorney? Now it’s a different story. The mandate of protection. It kind of takes over what the power of attorney did when you were competent. But once you’re incapacitated, it’s only going to be applicable once you’re incapacitated.
And then, it allows you to appoint a person who will be your mandatary so that he or she can take care of you in two ways. The first part. This will be in relation to your person, so to take care of your well-being, your accommodation, your care that you will receive.
And secondly, with respect to your property. It’s a bit like the power of attorney here. So, taking care of your investments, your banking, your housing again, but rather letting her maintain the house. Okay, I see the difference.
When do I do a power of attorney, do I do it when I’m competent or not competent? It’s really important to do the mandate of protection when you are still capable. Otherwise, you simply can’t do it.
You do it in anticipation of incapacity, you can do it in advance and you can do it when you are still 20 years old. There is no problem. It is simply to prevent in the future.
Because it is certain that if you are rendered unfit, you will no longer be able to do it and it will be too late to do it. We will have to proceed with the opening of a protection regime by the family, which is much more complex and much longer process.
What I understand is that if I become incapacitated with this protection mandate, which I have read, I will have to have it homologated to make it valid. Can you give a little bit about how it works, this probate process?
Yes, once you become incapacitated, your family notices certain things and they say that the person is no longer capable, they have them evaluated by a doctor. There is a social worker in the file also in contact, a notary in order to find the mandate of protection.
And then, precisely, the process of homologation will be able to start with the work of the doctor. The social worker, as I said, will apply to the court to verify the mandate that the person had prepared and also to officially declare the incapacity.
And then, from that moment on, when the court says that the person is unfit, the mandate is valid, from that moment on, the mandate of protection can be validated and take effect. OK, during this period, the family sees that I am there.
We go through all the steps of saying OK, I talk to the doctor and probably the first person I will contact. The social worker, notary who will do all the usual checks. We take all this, we fill out documents, we feel a real court and there we will have an official document.
OK, the person. And now unfit. So how long does it take to do all this? It takes a certain amount of time. It could take between 6 to 12 months, depending on the time it takes for the tribunal. But that’s why it takes a while.
That’s why it’s usually recommended to make a power of attorney within the incapacity mandate. Because, as explained in the other capsule of the power of attorney, it is valid until the person becomes incapacitated. At that point, the mandate of protection comes into play.
However, as we watch, there is a small lapse of time between the two or the power of attorney is no longer valid and the mandate is not yet homologated or verified. But if you do both, the power of attorney and the mandate in the same legal document, then the law allows the power of attorney to continue to be valid until the verification of the mandate of incapacity. So, everything, all the way through the process. Someone is going to be able to represent the person. I’ll tell you what, it’s that portion there. I thought I knew things well and I see that this is where the notary/notary aspect comes into play because I didn’t know.
That’s because one person could do a general power of attorney and a power of attorney for protection. But if you put the two together, that’s where the advantage comes in. So thank you Stephanie. So thank you for that second video.
So we’re going to move on to the third one in a few minutes with Visavie Will in the third segment. So thank you.