Newsletter
Choosing Your Own Guardian
Part IV, Family Law, of Taiwan's Civil Code was amended on June 9, 2019 to include provisions pertaining to a voluntary guardianship system, thereby allowing a person to appoint a guardian of his or her own choosing in advance by entering into a voluntary guardianship agreement with a candidate guardian (the "Guardian") selected by such person (the "Ward"), specifying that, upon the commencement of a guardianship proceeding over the Ward, the Guardian will assume the role of guardian for the Ward. For a voluntary guardianship agreement, or any amendment thereof, to be valid, the parties thereto (the Ward and the Guardian) must express their intent of entering into the voluntary guardianship agreement in person to a notary public, who then must issue a notarial certificate specifying that the voluntary guardianship agreement shall go into effect upon a declaration of guardianship over the Ward.
When a party to a voluntary guardianship agreement intends to rescind such agreement, he/she shall first notify the other party in writing and then have the notary public issue a notarial certificate to that effect before the rescission can become effective.
he addition of a "voluntary guardianship system" to the Civil Code under this amendment is based on the principle that one's free will must be respected, and it is aimed at allowing all adults the opportunity to decide who will be their guardians in the future when they still have the full capacity required to make such decision.