GUARDIANSHIP As Guardianship of an adult can only come about as a result of a lawsuit brought against that person.  In that lawsuit, someone, speaking through a lawyer, is asking the court to take away the right of another adult (the “proposed ward”) to manage his or her financial or personal affairs and vest those rights in someone else, called a guardian.  Typically the person who brings the lawsuit is asking to be appointed guardian.  The law is very protective of our rights, so our legislature has set up substantial barriers to the abuse that could arise in that kind of lawsuit.  One of them is that the court must make sure that the proposed ward has a lawyer.  If the proposed ward does not have one, the court will appoint one who will be paid out of the proposed ward’s property.  Typically, the person who is asking for the guardianship wants to have their lawyer paid for by the proposed ward, too.  Plus, in Texas the proposed ward is required to be in the courtroom for the trial unless his or her lawyer waives that right.  Because the right to manage your private and financial affairs is so fundamental, the court is required to only take away those rights that the proposed ward is proven to be incompetent to exercise.  All of this, as you can understand, is an expensive process.  As they say in the Ginsu-knife commercials, “But wait, there’s more!” The court does not just turn the guardian loose to manage the life or financial affairs of the ward.  The judge keeps an eye on everything that happens and requires a bond to be posted by and annual reports from the guardian.  For a guardianship of the person, these are not onerous obligations.  The typical bond amount is less than $20,000 and the annual report on the state of the ward is easy to fill complete.  For a guardianship of the estate, on the other hand, the guardian’s burdens are onerous indeed.  First comes the bond.  It must be filed before the guardian can be given authority to do anything.  How much will the bond be for?  The law requires that the bonded amount be the total maximum amount that a corrupt guardian could possibly steal from the ward’s estate in a year.  That amount is the sum of everything that is in the ward’s bank, brokerage, retirement and other accounts, the value of all of the ward’s personal property except motor vehicles, and all of the cash receipts the ward is expected to receive in the next year.  That size of bond is beyond the ability of most people to get.  Then there is the matter of the accountings.  Each year a guardian of the estate must file a complete detailed report with the court to show how the ward’s money was spent and invested.  And, we’re not talking about $1,500 for groceries, we’re talking about:      03/15/08   Randall’s     $23.87 for groceries      03/15/08   Randall’s     $04.53 for toiletries      03/15/08   Randall’s     $10.49 for household and cleaning supplies      03/16/08   Walgreen’s  $12.83 for prescriptions      03/16/08   Walgreen’s  $08.50 for non-prescription medicines And, every annual account is completely audited by court personnel.  All receipts have to be kept until the annual account is approved by the judge and made available for the court and its auditor to examine if there is any question.  The auditor starts with what was reported as the beginning balance and tracks everything to tie to the end of year figures.  They have to balance or the guardian can be thrown out and his or her bond forfeited.  Last but not least, all of this is a matter of public record.  Nobody wants to have to have a guardian, but as medical science advances, so does the probability that you will spend some significant part of your life incapacitated.  In fact, you now have to be over 65 before the odds of your dying in a given year are greater than the odds of your being incapacitated in that year.  For the ladies, their lifetime incapacity probability is higher because they tend to live longer than the men folks.  If you don’t want to face the danger of having a guardian appointed to manage your assets one day, CLICK HERE to contact us.  We can help!