When to report to the Curator public

Regardless of the value of the property administered, the parents, as legal tutors, are obliged to conserve these assets as far as possible, in order to remit them with interest to the child when they attain majority or are emancipated.

Parents have to report to the Curateur public whenever the child's patrimony exceeds $25,000. The patrimony is calculated by adding up the value of ALL the assets, which may be from various sources:

inheritances or donations (cash, house, land, valuable items, shares, bonds or other investment securities, etc.);
indemnity or capital paid by an insurer (Société de l'assurance automobile du Québec, life insurance company, etc.);
performance fees or portion of salary not managed by the child, etc.

Are expenditures taken into account when calculating the value of the patrimony?

Any assets entrusted to the administration of someone other than the dative tutor or legal tutor (parent) are excluded from the patrimony under the tutor's responsibility. This also applies to the minor's salary, which the minor may use for their everyday expenses.

If the value of all assets accumulated since the beginning of the tutorship exceeds $25,000, the parents are obliged to report to a tutorship council and to the Curateur public. Expenditures are not taken into account. However, expenditures must be shown in the administration report that the parents submit to the Curateur public.

Supporting documents

Parents are advised to keep all supporting documents for expenditures (invoices, receipts) or other operations (e.g. investments) carried out using the child's assets, whatever the value of the patrimony. These documents may prove very useful later on if they are reporting to a tutorship council and the Curateur public, or at the time when they remit the assets to the child who has attained full age or been emancipated.

Example

Caroline is a minor; she has $20,000 in the bank (indemnity paid on January 15, 1999 by the Société de l'assurance automobile du Québec after an accident).

Her mother and father take $7,000 from her bank account in 2003 for expenditures relating to her, so the net value of Caroline's patrimony falls to $13,000.
In 2007, she receives $6,000 as a gift from her grandparents.

Her parents must report on their administration to the tutorship council that they must set up and to the Curateur public because the value of the funds received and administered since January 15, 1999 (the year in which money first came in) amounts to $26,000, as shown in the table below.

Assets administered by the parents
Year	Receipts	Disbursements	Assets
Total receipts	$26,000
1999	$20,000		$20,000
2003		$7,000	$13,000
2007	$6,000		$19,000

Their report will cover all the years of their administration and enable the tutorship council that they must set up and the Curateur public to verify whether the expenditures of $7,000, with supporting documents, were incurred in the child's interests.

If these expenditures are justified and no further assets increase Caroline's patrimony to over $25,000, her parents do not have to submit any more reports to the Curateur public or set up a tutorship council.

However, this does not relieve them of the obligation to manage Caroline's assets in her best interests by acting vigilantly and prudently, and avoiding conflicts of interest.