If you’ve ever known a family that had to create a guardianship, you may have heard that the expense was extremely high. It definitely can be. Guardianship is a complex process requiring the court to involve multiple attorneys that are highly trained to find the best solutions for someone who is mentally incapacitated. So, guardianship isn’t cheap because it involves highly-trained professionals and always more than one. There is always at least one attorney working for the applicant and one attorney working for the incapacitated person (the court-appointed attorney ad litem).
Consider a relatively happy but not unusual scenario: Mom has developed severe Alzheimer’s and she never signed powers of attorney. However, her two children love her and are cooperative with each other. The daughter is the primary caretaker for mom and the son is willing to handle the financial issues. Assuming it is clear that mom is incapacitated, all that is needed to prove her incapacity is a letter from her physician.
Further, assuming cooperation between the daughter and son, they can agree who is going to be guardian, and in this case, the daughter would be appointed guardian to make medical decisions and the son appointed to be guardian to make financial decisions. Although a court-appointed attorney is still involved and various procedures must be followed (formal application, a court investigator’s report, and ad litem involvement), the guardianship proceeding can be created without tremendous expense. Depending on the nature of the person’s assets, the ongoing cost of the financial guardianship also might be a few thousand dollars a year.
So, although we like to always plan to avoid guardianship, when a family is cooperative and reasonable, extraordinary guardianship expenses should be avoided. Like most legal proceedings, it’s not the proceeding itself that’s expensive, it’s resolving the disputes that creates excess expense. Avoiding dispute and gaining cooperation of the family is the key to having a happy guardianship.
Contact Dallas Estate Planning and Probate Attorneys Pyke and Associates, P.C. to learn more about how we can help.
This material has been prepared for informational purposes only, and is not intended to provide, and should not be relied on for, specific tax, legal or accounting advice. We can only give specific advice upon consulting directly with you and reviewing your exact situation.
