La Protecció patrimonial de les persones discapacitades o dependents en el codi civil de Catalunya: el "patrimoni protegit"

Abstract

The Catalan Civil Code regulates protected assets (or patrimoni protegit) as an institution for the protection of disabled or dependent persons (Articles 227-1 to 227-9). This paper examines the pertinent rules with the support of pre-legislative material on trust assets from 2002 and 2006 which was prepared by the Private Law Observatory of the Government of Catalonia (Generalitat), with reference to Act 41/2003 of the Spanish Government. Any person, including the beneficiary, may settle protected assets by means of a legal transaction of allotment of assets to meet the vital needs of one or more specific beneficiaries. Protected assets have no title-holder, they are autonomous and they have no legal personality. They are administered by a natural person or a legal entity with the authority granted by the settlor or, in its absence, under the system established in the respective guardianship. Consideration is also given here to the guardianship supervision mechanisms, the extinction of the protected assets and their liquidation (with their reversion), and the publicity of registration (with reference to Decree 30/2012 dated 13th March).