On this page, you will find:

What's New

Newly Updated Charts through 2012

Now available: Guardianship Charts with information current through Dec. 2012.

2012 State Adult Guardianship Legislative Update
The ABA Commission on Law and Aging has completed the 2012 State Adult Guardianship Legislative Update. Click through to read about the 29 adult guardianship measures enacted during the year.

Announcements

National Guardianship Network Requests Proposals for Working Interdisciplinary Networks of Guardianship Stakeholders (WINGS)

    In 2011, the Third National Guardianship Summit recommended that states create Working Interdisciplinary Networks of Guardianship Stakeholders (WINGS) to advance adult guardianship reform.
    With support from the State Justice Institute and the Albert and Elaine Borchard Foundation Center on Law and Aging, the National Guardianship Network (NGN) invited the chief justice and state court administrator of each state to partner with community entities in establishing and maintaining such ongoing interdisciplinary problem-solving stakeholder networks.
    A total of four states each will receive a $7,000 incentive grant plus technical assistance from NGN experts. Experience in these four demonstration states will be used to promote ongoing WINGS groups in other jurisdictions, and the selected states will gain high visibility nationally.
    Applications were due by Thursday January 31, 2013. The court must partner with the State Unit on Aging under the Older Americans Act, the state Adult Protective Services office, and the federally-mandated state Protection & Advocacy agency or state Council on Developmental Disabilities. Applications that also include additional stakeholders will be favorably rated.
    See example of the individualized cover letter and attached Request for Proposals sent to each chief justice and state court administrator. (The example is for New York, but each chief justice and state court administrator received the same personalized letter in hard copy, and it will be posted online on judicial sites as well.)

Third National Guardianship Summit Releases Standards and Recommendations

On October 13–15, the ten National Guardianship Network sponsoring organizations, with eleven diverse cosponsors, convened the Third National Guardianship Summit at the University of Utah S.J. Quinney School of Law in Salt Lake City. With 92 delegates, observers, authors, funders and facilitators participating, the Summit was a consensus conference on post-appointment guardian performance and decision-making for adults.
The Summit delegates adopted a far-reaching set of recommendations for Guardian Standards, as well as additional Recommendations for action by courts, legislatures, and other entities. These documents from the Summit offer the groundwork for nationally recognized standards for guardians of adults.
The Third National Guardianship Summit was supported by grants from the State Justice Institute, the Borchards Foundation Center on Law and Aging, and contributions from the National Guardianship Network and co-sponsoring organizations. For a list of these entities, see www.guardianshipsummit.org.

Third National Guardianship Summit Standards and Recommendations

Online Volunteer Handbook for Courts Boosts Guardianship Oversight

Updating a 20-year old groundbreaking manual by Legal Counsel for the Elderly, Inc. of AARP, the ABA Commission on Law and aging has produced a concise, four-part readily accessible electronic handbook on volunteer guardianship monitoring. It guides court staff step by step in developing a volunteer guardianship monitoring and assistance program, recruiting and training volunteers, and compiling community information volunteers will need. Detailed forms and appendices are adaptable locally. For technical assistance in using the handbooks for your court, contact Erica Wood.

GAO Report on Incapacitated Adults, Federal Fiduciaries and Guardians

The U.S. Government Accountability Office has released a report dated July 2011, entitled Incapacitated Adults: Oversight of Federal Fiduciaries and Court-Appointed Guardians Needs Improvement. The report assesses the screening, monitoring and information sharing procedures of the Social Security Administration, Veterans Affairs and state courts concerning fiduciaries and guardians; and also examines federal support for court oversight of guardians. The GAO recommends that: (1) the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services should consider funding evaluations of practices for monitoring guardians; and (2) SSA should determine how it can, under current law, disclose certain information about beneficiaries and fiduciaries to state courts upon request.

GAO Report on Guardianship Abuse; Resources on Monitoring and Standards

See the recent U.S. Government Accountability Office report on Guardianships: Cases of Financial Exploitation, Neglect, and Abuse of Seniors. While the GAO “could not determine whether allegations of abuse by guardians are widespread,” it identified hundreds of such allegations by guardians in 45 states and DC between 1990 and 2010. The GAO examined 20 cases in which criminal or civil penalties resulted, and found significant exploitation of assets. The report showed that in many instances guardians are not sufficiently screened or monitored by the court; and additionally that selected guardian certification programs failed to adequately screen potential certified guardians. The GAO report underscores the compelling need for guardian standards, training, and monitoring.
See also:

Guarding the Guardians: Promising Practices for Court Monitoring (2007), AARP Public Policy Institute and ABA Commission on Law and Aging.

ABA Commission on Law and Aging Awarded Grants to Develop Volunteer Guardianship Assistance and Monitoring Handbook for Courts

National Guardianship Association Standards of Practice.

Guardianship Jurisdiction

ABA Commission on Law and Aging Joint Campaign for Uniform Guardianship Jurisdiction

Description of ABA Commission on Law and Aging Advocacy for Uniform Guardianship Jurisdiction
Nine Ways to Reduce Elder Abuse Through Enactment of the Uniform Adult Guardianship and Protective Proceedings Jurisdiction Act
(UPDATED to December 2010) Resource: Reported Cases on Multi-state Guardianship Jurisdiction Issues Supporting Need for the Uniform Adult Guardianship and Protective Proceedings Jurisdiction Act (UAGPPJA)
--Sorted by Issue
--Sorted by First State Involved
--Sorted by Second State Involved
Multi-State Guardianship Jurisdiction Stories Supporting Need for the Uniform Adult Guardianship and Protective Proceedings Jurisdiction Act (UAGPPJA) (Updated to June 2009)
--Sorted by Issue
--Sorted by First State Involved
--Sorted by Second State Involved
Resource: Multi-State Adult Guardianship Publications List (Updated to December 2010)
ABA Commission on Law and Aging Soliciting Stories on Guardianship Jurisdiction Problems and Successes

Alzheimer’s Association Resources on Uniform Guardianship Jurisdiction

Uniform Adult Guardianship and Protective Proceedings Jurisdiction Act Materials from the Uniform Law Commission

State Laws & Policy

I. State Adult Guardianship Legislation: Directions of Reform

II. Adult Guardianship State Legislative Charts:

Guardian Felony Disqualification and Background Requirements (by Sally Hurme, as of 04/26/13)
Capacity Definition & Initiation of Guardianship Proceedings (as of Dec. 31, 2012)
Representation and Investigation of Guardianship Proceedings (as of Dec. 31, 2012)
Notice in Guardianship Proceedings (as of Dec. 31, 2012)
Monitoring Following Guardianship Proceedings (as of Dec. 31, 2012)
Conduct and Findings of Guardianship Proceedings (as of Dec. 31, 2012)
Guardian Authority for Residential Decisions (as of August 2010)
Limited Guardianship of the Person (as of Dec. 31, 2008)
Emergency Guardianship (through 2007)

III. Health Care Decision-Making: A Guardian's Authority

Health Care Decision-Making Authority: Health Care Agents vs. Court Appointed Guardians (50-state chart)

IV. State Guardianship Statutory Citations

Statutory Table of Authorities (as of June 2011)

ABA Guardianship Policy

August 2012 Resolution 106B
RESOLVED, That the American Bar Association adopts the Third National Guardianship Summit Standards and Recommendations, dated August 2012, and urges courts, as well as national, state, local, tribal and territorial policy-making bodies to implement them.

February 2009 Recommendation 111A
RESOLVED, That the American Bar Association encourages the federal government to provide funding and support for training, research, exchange of information on practices, consistent collection of data, and development of state, local and territorial standards regarding adult guardianship.

August 2002 Recommendation 108B
RESOLVED, That the American Bar Association recommends that state, territorial and local policy-making bodies implement the following principles derived from the 2001 Wingspan Conference addressing adult guardianship issues.

February 2000 Recommendation
RESOLVED, That the American Bar Association urges: (1) the Senate of the United States to give its advice and consent to the ratification of the Hague Convention on the International
Protection of Adults, the final text of which was adopted by the Hague Conference on Private International Law on October 2, 1999; and (2) the Congress of the United States to enact legislation implementing fully and uniformly this Convention which concerns the protection of adults who, by reason of an impairment or insufficiency of their personal faculties, are not in a position to protect their personal, health care or property interests in an international context.

August 1991 Recommendation
The justice system should commit itself to the removal of attitudinal barriers and serve as a model of accessibility based on the principle of "universal design," which requires a barrier-free and technologically enhanced environment in which what is needed by one is available to all.

February 1989 Recommendation
BE IT RESOLVED, That the American Bar Association supports the following recommendations of the National Guardianship Symposium, which aim to safeguard the rights and maximize the autonomy of adult disabled wards and proposed wards, while providing for their needs.
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, That the American Bar Association urges the implementation of the recommendations at the state and local level through appropriate legislation, legal and judicial rules and practices, workable programs, and educational sessions.

August 1987 Recommendation
BE IT RESOLVED, That the American Bar Association supports efforts to improve judicial practices concerning guardianship, and adopts the following Recommended Judicial Practices and urges their implementation for the Elderly at the state level.

Consensus Conferences

Wingspread—The First National Guardianship Conference

Wingspread Recommendations and Report

Wingspan—The Second National Guardianship Conference

International Guardianship Recommendations

2010 Yokohama Declaration

Videos and Publications

Guardianship Videos

List of Guardianship Video Resources (As of August 2010)

Guardianship Handbooks

State Guardianship Handbooks

Guardianship Publications

See the ABA Commission's complete catalog of publications on guardianship and guardianship alternatives here.

Advertisement

Guardianship Law & Practice

Guardianship

Advertisement

Reprint Requests

Archived Publications