Administrative support

What it is

Administrative support, or legal guardianship, is a facility available to persons who find themselves unable, even partially or temporarily, to provide for their own interests, as a result of a disability that is:

• physical;
• mental.

In general, therefore, the support of an administrator is a milder measure than a declaration of incompetency and is a modern and sufficiently elastic institution to protect persons with disabilities, taking account of the need to respect and value their remaining capacity to act.

How it is established

“Administrative support” is activated by recourse to a judge, who, having gathered all appropriate information, designates a support administrator by decree and describes his task.

The choice of support administrator is very important: the task needs to be done exclusively for the care and in the interests of the beneficiary. The choice may therefore light on the spouse, the unmarried partner, other relative up to the fourth degree, but also on a non-relative. Anyone can nominate their own support administrator or legal guardian in anticipation of their possible future incapacity, by public deed or authenticated private document. It is also possible to designate, in a will, a particular support administrator for one’s child.

In the same way, by means of a public deed or authenticated private document, it is possible to revoke the appointment of an administrator.

The designation made by public deed has particular value, because it is binding on the magistrate: it may be ignored only for serious reasons.

Effects

A person who is subjected to administrative support does not completely lose his or her ability to act, but only in relation to certain specific transactions.

Specifically, the person subject to administration:

• must be assisted or represented by the administrator in the fulfilment of certain acts specified in the decree of the magistrate;
• retains the capacity to undertake all transactions that do not require exclusive representation or the obligatory assistance of the support administrator.

Support administration is therefore an extremely flexible facility: it is in fact set up case by case according to the particular needs each individual.
In all case, beneficiaries of administrative support still retain the ability to:

• perform the acts necessary to meet the needs of their everyday life;
• make a will, provided they are of sound mind at the time;
• get married;
• recognise their own children