Written for people who instruct or arrange these rather than experience them: estate and elder-law counsel, hospital and continuing-care social workers, and discharge planners.
If you already know the framework, the three things most likely to cost you time are the three-month medical evaluation window, the six-month currency of the report, and the fact that there are two different Form 4s. Those are covered below.
What the assessment can and cannot answer
A designated capacity assessment under the Adult Guardianship and Trusteeship Act answers one question, area by area: whether the adult has the ability to understand information relevant to a decision and to appreciate the reasonably foreseeable consequences of making, or not making, it.
It does not answer whether a decision was wise, whether a family member is a suitable appointee, whether an adult is being unduly influenced, or whether a past transaction should stand. Those are different questions and some of them are yours, not the assessor's.
It is also not a global finding. Capacity is assessed across defined areas, and a report can properly find capacity retained in some and absent in others. If your client's instructions assume an all-or-nothing outcome, it is worth resetting that expectation early.
The report
Form 4, Capacity Assessment Report (Guardianship or Trusteeship or both), OPG5560. One report covers guardianship, trusteeship, or both.
Two adjacent forms exist in the same series: Form 3, OPG5559, for co-decision-making, and Form 10, OPG5566, for specific decision-making under section 96.
The collision worth knowing about: in the co-decision-making court forms series, "Form 4" is a Notice of Application and Hearing, OPG5624. If you are specifying forms in correspondence, cite the OPG number.
The report records findings on capacity in the areas assessed and whether the adult may regain capacity, with reassessment dates where applicable.
The two dates that govern sequencing
Three months before. The assessor must attest that a medical evaluation of the adult was conducted by a named physician on a stated date falling within the three-month period immediately preceding the capacity assessment. Its function is to exclude reversible and temporary causes.
Six months after. The completed report is valid for six months. Alberta states it both ways: the assessment must be dated within the six months before the application is submitted, and the report must not be dated more than six months before submission.
Between those two constraints there is a workable window and a common failure mode. Families frequently obtain the assessment first and then spend months collecting consents, plans, personal references, background checks and, for trusteeship, an inventory. If the six months lapses, the assessment is repeated and repaid for.
Sequence the assessment late. Get the medical evaluation and the surrounding package moving first.
Who receives it
Copies go to the adult, the applicant, the court, and the review officer as part of the application package. In most cases the adult receives the same information provided to the court. Instructions premised on the adult not seeing the report will not survive contact with the process.
The adult's rights during the assessment
Worth knowing before you predict a timeline. The adult is presumed to have capacity until the contrary is determined. The assessor must make a reasonable effort to meet with the adult and, unless they are non-responsive, explain the purpose and nature of the assessment. The adult may refuse the assessment, or stop it at any point, and the assessor must then stop and note it on the report.
A support person may be present and communication devices may be used. Alberta's guidance is that assessments should be scheduled when the adult is likely to be able to demonstrate their full capacity, which is a real scheduling constraint rather than a courtesy.
Fees
The regulations cap the assessor's fee at up to $500 where the assessment relates exclusively to personal matters or exclusively to financial matters, and up to $700 where it relates to both. Courts may allow a higher fee where the matter is complex.
The court filing fee is up to $300. A review application is up to $100.
Where cost is a hardship, two routes exist: the Office of the Public Guardian and Trustee may be contacted about the assessment cost, and the Crown may agree to pay a specified amount and reasonable disbursements toward the application costs where payment is a hardship for both the adult and the applicant, evidenced in the costs section of the affidavit with a Hardship Application for Costs Against the Crown.
The application package
For trusteeship the Office of the Public Guardian and Trustee lists: Form 4 Capacity Assessment Report, Form 14 Application, Form 15 Affidavit of Applicant, Form 34 Trusteeship Plan, Form 27 Consent of Trustee, Form 29 Consent of Alternate Trustee where applicable, Form 37 Inventory, and Form 30 Personal References.
Guardianship substitutes Form 32 Guardianship Plan and the guardian consents at Forms 24 and 26.
Post-appointment, trustees file the inventory within six months of the order, then Form 36 Statement of Transactions and Form 38 Overview of Trusteeship Accounts.
Before instructing, consider whether it is needed
Alberta's framework is least-intrusive-first, and a court must be satisfied that less intrusive and less restrictive supports are not suitable.
Two questions dispose of a meaningful share of prospective applications. Does an enduring power of attorney exist? If so, trusteeship is generally unnecessary. Does a personal directive exist? If so, guardianship is generally unnecessary, and what may be required instead is a Declaration of Incapacity under the Personal Directives Act, Schedules 2 or 3, OPG5522 or OPG5523, to bring the directive into effect.
Where the need is a single urgent health-care or residential decision, specific decision-making may resolve it without a court, assessed by a health-care provider on Form 10, subject to its exclusions and its seven-day window.
How to instruct us
Tell us the areas actually in issue rather than asking for a general finding, confirm whether the matter is personal, financial or both so the fee and scope are right from the start, and tell us whether the recent medical evaluation has happened and when.
Tell us where the adult is and when they are at their best. And tell us your filing timeline, so the six months is spent on your side rather than expiring on ours.
What we will not do is indicate a likely conclusion in advance. A report whose conclusion was negotiable is worth nothing to you at the point it is examined.
Northridge is based in Edmonton and works across the surrounding region. Contact us to discuss a referral.