Draft bill 24.

Summary.

The draft bill would add enhanced protection of older adults’ assets to Law 36 of August 5, 2016. Comprehensive protection would encompass the prevention, detection, investigation, punishment, and redress of financial or property abuse committed against them. It would also insert into that law a definition of financial or property abuse covering acts or omissions involving property, rights, income, pensions, bank accounts, investments, and other assets. The definition includes obtaining, transferring, administering, encumbering, disposing of, using, or controlling such assets without free, prior, and informed consent, as well as conduct involving deception, manipulation, intimidation, undue pressure, breach of trust, or exploitation of dependence, vulnerability, or diminished ability to understand or decide.

The bill would add a subsection to Article 221 of the Criminal Code (Código Penal), adopted through Law 14 of May 18, 2007, addressing conduct committed against a person over sixty years of age or through exploitation of that person’s vulnerability. It provides for an increase in the penalty of up to one third when the offender is a spouse, cohabiting partner, or relative within the specified degrees; holds a mandate, power of attorney, guardianship, curatorship, administrative role, or legal representation granted by the victim; uses fraudulent notarial, judicial, or administrative procedures intended to restrict the older adult’s legal capacity; or targets the victim’s principal residence or assets constituting the main source of subsistence.

In the Civil Code (Código Civil), adopted through Law No. 2 of August 22, 1916, the bill proposes to add to Article 713 a case concerning persons over sixty years of age whose mental and cognitive incapacity has been certified by a specialist or qualified professional. It adds to Article 1114 a case concerning persons who lack mental, social, property-related, and legal capacity for the stated purposes. It adds to Article 1141 a case involving acts performed or obligations undertaken by persons who lack mental, cognitive, social, property-related, and legal capacity for those purposes.

For acts, contracts, declarations, and other documents eligible for notarization or legalization that concern the disposal of assets by persons over sixty years of age, the addition to Article 1715 of the Civil Code would require the Notary Public to verify the grantor’s identity and ability to understand in person, confirm that consent is free and informed, record that verification in the public instrument, and take reasonable steps to detect manipulation, coercion, or financial abuse. It would also require an audiovisual record of asset-disposal transactions whose value exceeds ten thousand balboas (B/. 10,000.00), in accordance with implementing regulations. The bill identifies the amendments and additions to Law No. 36 of August 5, 2016, the Criminal Code of Panama, and the Civil Code of Panama, and provides for commencement upon promulgation. Its provisions concern notaries and persons involved in criminal, civil, banking, pension, and asset-management matters affecting older adults.