mcnumpty

Hi NormanH, Yes, I did look at it and as far as I can see it seems that the french system mirrors the system in Scotland to the extent that a person with capacity can grant a future power of attorney to someone else before they lose capacity (as in the mandat de protection future) and which can then come into effect when needed. If it is already too late, however, you then have to go into setting up a guardianship, which I believe is the equivalent of the tutelle and is more complex and expensive. I'm not sure I agree that having a disinterested person making decisions is necessarily better, particularly if it involves having to go before a judge every time something has to be decided and costs the person money just to govern their routine affairs. I can see that there is a risk giving anyone this power but that is why you need to make sure it is someone you would trust to do the best by you. Regards McNumpty

Thank you all again for your input. Looking into "procuration", I think this is more to do with appointing a proxy who can carry out certain things on your behalf where you may not be able to attend in person and is subtly different from what I was looking for, which is the ability to actually take control of someone's affairs, both personal and financial, and make decisions on their behalf should they lose capacity, which I think is what the "mandat de protection future" is for. There is a suspicion that my father may be displaying early signs of dementia so I'm keen that safeguards are put in place before either of them lose the capacity to consent to this. I'm also hopeful that if we could do this in time, it would avoid the necessity of having to get guardianship set up, which I understand can be complex and expensive. To be honest, it has now come to the point where they really need to be selling up and come home - my mother has developed serious health problems and nearly died just before Christmas but until they take this on board, I'm just trying to see what we can do to protect them in the meantime, albeit from a distance. It's an extremely worrying time for the rest of the family, as I'm sure you'll understand so I'm very grateful for the advice you have all provided so far. Thanks McNumpty

Thank you very much for all your speedy responses. The notaires.fr website looks like it will be extremely useful and I take on board the suggestion of an interpreter - stupidly hadn't really thought of that possibility myself! I was also doing a bit of digging around myself and I think what we need is something called a "mandat de protection". Either way, I think my parents are going to have to actively buy into the concept, though, as I assume they will have to express certain preferences/wishes, etc. Unfortunately, getting them to engage with this may be harder than all the other bits put together :(. Thanks again, McNumpty

Hi, I'm looking for information about registering a power of attorney for my parents who have lived full time in France for the last 15 years and who own a property there. I think this means that if we wanted to register an effective power of attorney to allow myself or one of my siblings to step in should one of them become incapacitated, that we would need to register it both in Scotland, where they are originally from and where I and the rest of my family live and in France, as they own assets there. I've asked on the Fool boards (boards.fool.co.uk) and they advised that someone here might be able to offer some info. Based on what I've been advised so far, I think I will need to get a notaire involved but haven't got a clue how to go about and nobody in my family (apart from my parents) speaks particularly good french. I should perhaps say that I am not anticipating that my parents will object to us doing this, we just can't depend on them getting the wheels in motion themselves. Would anybody be able to point me in the direction of some info about how to get started or even recommend an english-speaking notaire I could approach in the first instance? Thanks McNumpty