How much do you get paid for being a legal guardian and how does it work?

A legal guardian is entitled to reasonable compensation. They are generally paid an amount which is not more than five percent of the ward’s yearly income. The state laws may prevail when deciding the exact compensation for a legal guardian.

What is a Legal Guardian?

Appointing a legal guardian is the concept of appointing someone to oversee the health, fitness, and finances of a minor, incapacitated person, or the adults with a disability.

A minor or an incapacitated person cannot make a rational decision regarding their health, fitness, and finances, hence, a court may appoint a person to oversee their daily lifestyle or finances for their wellbeing.

How much do you get paid for being a legal guardian?

In some cases, it’s possible to have the same person serve as both a guardian and a conservator. However, a court may choose to appoint a different person for the roles of a guardian and a conservator if it determines that doing so will best serve the interests of the ward. If the guardian will need to handle more than $24,000 annually, then the court will usually appoint a conservator.

A guardian is entitled to reasonable compensation. When appointed as guardians, family members often serve without compensation. A professional guardian not related by blood or marriage can receive financial compensation to carry out the statutory responsibilities given by the court.

A guardian is generally paid an amount which is not more than five percent of the ward’s yearly income. The amount may vary slightly, but in no case should the guardian’s compensation be fixed at less than fifty dollars for a year.

If the guardian performs extraordinary services, they can file a petition before the court pointing out such extraordinary services. The court may authorize reasonable additional compensation to the guardian.

The average annual salary of a court hired guardian was $30,000 as of 2014 according to the job site Simply Hired. The highest salary earned by a court guardian was $47,000 in D.C. and the lowers of $23,000 in Mississippi.

How does it work?

There are two types of guardianships: those of the Person and those of the Estate. A guardian of the person has custody and control of the person who has been declared incapacitated (called the “ward”) and responsibility for their physical safety and welfare. A ward’s money and property are referred to as their “estate”. The guardian of the estate has custody and control of this money and property. A guardian shouldn’t be confused with a conservatory.

A legal guardian is a person appointed by the court of law to care for the person. Although these two terms sound similar, a guardianship gives one or more people the authority to make health-related decisions for another person, while a conservatorship is a legal relationship that gives one or more individuals the authority to make financial decisions on behalf of an incompetent or incapacitated person.

Qualification

Even though you have been appointed as a guardian, you still must “qualify” before you have to power. To qualify, you must file an oath of office and any required fiduciary bond with the court clerk, both within 20 days after the order is signed.

For a guardian of the estate, the bond must be set at an amount equal to the value of the ward’s non-real estate assets plus the ward’s anticipated income for the next 12-month period.

Letter of Guardianship

The Letters of Guardianship received from the clerk certifies that you now have the authority to act as a guardian. The letter expires after 16 months unless renewed by the court. The guardian must file an annual report of the ward’s condition and an annual account of the ward’s assets for the court’s review and approval.

Each year within 60 days of the anniversary of the date you qualified as guardian, you must file a sworn Annual Account.

Duties and Powers

The guardian has the following responsibilities

• the right to have physical custody of the ward and to establish his or her legal residence.

• the duty to provide physical care, supervision, and protection for the ward.

• the duty to provide food, clothing, shelter, and medical care to the ward

• the power to consent to medical and surgical care on the ward’s behalf.

The guardian is permitted to prepare and file the annual report without the assistance of an attorney, but we recommend you to retain Mark Gray- Best Attorney Law Firm in Ankeny to help you with the process.

Duties and Power of Guardian of the Estate

The sole responsibility of Estate Guardian is to prevent financial abuse and to protect both the ward’s interests and those of certain third parties, such as creditors.

A guardian can be held personally liable for any transaction made without the court’s approval. As a general rule, everything you do with the ward’s finances must have prior court approval.

Monthly or Annual Allowance

The “allowance” is a specified amount of the ward’s money that the guardian may spend without further court approval.

The court will approve a monthly or annual allowance at the time a guardian is appointed. But if not, an application requesting an allowance must be filed within 30 days of your qualification.

Investment Plan

The Estate’s guardian has a duty to invest the ward’s assets that aren’t immediately necessary for the support of the ward. The assets must be invested as a prudent person would. Any other investment requires court approval.

Managing the estate

As an estate guardian, you can exercise certain powers without prior court approval, such as insuring estate property against fire, theft, and other hazards, paying taxes and bond premiums.

If you spend funds without court approval, you may seek ratification from the court of the expenditure, provided that the amount was reasonable, necessary, and proven by a receipt. If the court doesn’t ratify it, you will have to re-pay it to the estate from your personal funds.

If possible, the amount that you spend on the guardianship should be limited to the income of the guardianship estate.

The most efficient way to keep track of the ward’s finances is to use the guardianship account for all routine transactions. Deposit all of the ward’s income into this account, and pay all expenses from the account.

You may wish to sell estate property to compensate for insufficient expenses. This required prior court approval.

Federal Benefits

If your ward receives federal benefits such as Social Security Administration (SSA), make sure to keep the SSA benefits separate from the ward’s income and resources by deposition them into a separate account.

Here is the brief info graphics detail about “how much do you get paid as a legal guardian.

Mark Gray is the best law firm in Ankeny specializing in guardianship and conservatorship wills and trust administration, and consulting services.