Our profession’s self-defined code of conduct is a demanding one. Our role as experts entails committing both to our clients and to the heirs we represent.
Commitment to clients
The Archives généalogiques Andriveau are committed to placing its expertise at the service of those who have requested it. Our Firm ensures our clients are provided with regular progress reports regarding our work locating heirs. We undertake to produce all the necessary support documentation to establishing the quality of the heirs, particularly by producing a genealogical chart. By signing the notarial deed, we certify and assume responsibility for the accuracy of the descendants we issue.
Commitment to heirs
Through the signing of the estate-disclosure contract and of a power of attorney, heirs grant us the power to settle the estate on their behalf. The Firm is committed to representing the best interests of these heirs throughout the settlement of the estate. As the Firm is the heirs’ representative, it ensures they are involved in every major step of the succession and in each important decision resulting therefrom.
Professional ethics
In 1947, we became one of the founding members of the Chambre des généalogistes successoraux de France (French Chamber of Probate Genealogist) which, with its nearly 30 firms, is the profession’s oldest representative body.
We are also a member of Généalogistes de France. (French Genealogists), which represents 95% of the profession. It is in this capacity that, in 2013, our Firm became a co-signatory of the Code of Conduct which defines our profession’s commitments, values and principles of action. Through this code, we – as professional genealogists – undertake to be diligent in the execution of the missions entrusted to us. We employ all useful intellectual and technical means that prove necessary to fulfill our missions. Our behaviour is meant to convey the most positive image of our profession and to represent it honourably.
Our guarantees
Legal certainty
The heir and the Archives Généalogiques Andriveau are bound when both parties sign the estate-disclosure contract. For the heir, this contract constitutes a guarantee of absolute legal certainty. Notably, it stipulates that the Firm shall bear full liability for all costs it incurs, and thus that the heirs shall disburse no amount. The Firm is personally responsible for any deficit that might arise after the settlement of an insolvent estate. The contract also establishes our fees, which are determined according to the heir’s degree of kinship. They represent a percentage of the net assets of the heir’s share of the estate. No other money will be requested.
Liability insurance and financial guarantee
The Archives Généalogiques Andriveau have purchased civil-liability insurance to cover the dossiers, as well as a financial guarantee. The latter is provided each year, upon production of a business-representation certificate.
Insurer : MMA IARD SA – 14 boulevard Marie et Alexandre Oyon, 72030 Le Mans CEDEX 9 – Professional Civil-Liability Insurance Contract Number 127120692
Insurer : MS AMLIN INSURANCE SE – 22 rue Marie-Georges Picquart, 75017 Paris – Financial Guarantee Contract Number 2018PFC007
Banking Security
The Archives Généalogiques Andriveau are partners of the Caisse des Dépôts et Consignations (Deposits and Consignments Fund). Thanks to this privileged partnership, our Firm works with the same banking institution as all French notaires and court officers. The Archives Généalogiques Andriveau has a “third-party account” meant to receive the sums intended for represented heirs.
Protection of personal data (RGPD)
Each day, the Archives Généalogiques Andriveau are required to process personal data as part of the missions with which they are tasked. The Firm has therefore appointed a Data Protection Officer (DPO). For more information, you can consult our legal notice.
Audits
Audits are carried out annually by the and by KPMG, an independent external auditor.
Mediation following a dispute
In the event of any complaint, contact Andriveau first, by e-mail, telephone or mail, using the contact details you will find in “Our branch offices”. Should the remedy proposed above not result in an agreement that is likely to resolve the dispute, or in the absence of a response after two months, and only in such cases, the heir is informed that he may refer the matter, free of charge, to the consumer mediator, who is competent for any dispute relating to this contract:
By mail, to:
- Monsieur Gérard Gaucher
Consumer mediator for the Généalogistes de France et de la généalogie professionnelle union
51, chemin des Grands-Moulins
69400 GLEIZÉ
All information related to mediation may also be found on the mediator’s website.
The parties to the contract remain free to accept or refuse the recourse to mediation and, in the event of a recourse to mediation, to accept or refuse any solution proposed by the mediator.
