Guardianship in Florida:
and how to avoid it.

The phone call usually goes like this: “Mom has dementia, the bank won't talk to me, and the hospital keeps asking who her decision-maker is. What do I do?” If she signed a durable power of attorney and a healthcare surrogate designation while she was well, the answer is simple: show them the documents. If she signed nothing, the answer is a court proceeding under Chapter 744, Florida Statutes, called guardianship, and it is worth understanding exactly what that involves before you are in the middle of it.

This guide walks through how guardianship works, what it realistically costs, the alternatives Florida courts must consider first, and the planning that keeps families out of the process altogether.

What Guardianship Actually Is

Guardianship is a court proceeding that removes an adult's legal rights and hands them to someone else. That is not rhetoric; it is the statutory mechanism. A judge determines that a person, called the ward once the order is entered, lacks the capacity to exercise specific rights, removes those rights one by one, and appoints a guardian to exercise them under continuous court supervision.

Florida law splits the role in two. A guardian of the person makes decisions about medical care, residence, and daily life. A guardian of the property manages money, real estate, and contracts. One person can hold both roles, or the court can split them. The scope also varies: a plenary guardianship removes all delegable rights, while a limited guardianship removes only the rights the person genuinely cannot exercise. Florida law expresses a preference for the least restrictive form, though in dementia cases plenary guardianship is common because the incapacity is progressive.

What It Costs, and What It Keeps Costing

Plan on $4,000 to $10,000 or more to establish an uncontested guardianship. That covers the filing fees for two petitions, the court-appointed attorney for your parent, three examining committee members who each bill for their evaluation and report, and your own attorney, who is not optional: Florida requires every guardian to be represented by counsel. If a sibling objects, or two family members compete for appointment, a contested case can run into the tens of thousands before a guardian is ever appointed.

The spending does not stop at appointment. Every year the guardian files an annual guardianship plan for the person and an annual accounting for the property, both reviewed by the court, both typically prepared with attorney help. The court may require a bond on the guardian of the property, with annual premiums. Major decisions, selling the ward's home, settling a claim, making gifts, need advance court approval. Most of these costs come out of your parent's own assets, and the guardianship usually lasts the rest of their life.

On timing: an uncontested case typically takes two to four months from filing to letters of guardianship. When there is imminent danger to the person or their assets, the court can appoint an emergency temporary guardian under § 744.3031 within days, for up to 90 days, extendable once. Emergency guardianship is a genuine safety valve, but it is a stopgap layered on top of the full proceeding, not a substitute for it.

The Alternatives Florida Courts Must Consider First

Before appointing a guardian, the court must make a specific finding that no less restrictive alternative will adequately address the person's needs. In practice, the alternatives are the ordinary tools of an estate plan:

• Durable power of attorney. A signed document naming an agent to handle finances. Under Florida law it is effective immediately and survives incapacity. If a valid, workable DPOA covers the problem, a guardianship of the property is usually unnecessary.
• Healthcare surrogate designation. Names a decision-maker for medical care. Paired with a DPOA, it covers both halves of what a plenary guardian would do.
• Living will. States end-of-life treatment wishes directly, so nobody has to guess and no judge has to decide.
• Revocable living trust. A funded trust with a successor trustee keeps assets managed through incapacity without any court involvement at all.
• Supported decision-making. Informal or structured arrangements where the person keeps their rights and makes decisions with help from trusted supporters. Courts increasingly weigh this for people with partial capacity.

One related tool worth knowing about: for adults with developmental disabilities, Florida offers guardian advocacy under § 393.12, Fla. Stat., a streamlined proceeding that does not require an adjudication of incapacity. It is the usual route for parents of a child with autism or Down syndrome who is turning 18, and a different track from the Chapter 744 process this guide covers.

The Part That Matters Most: This Is Preventable

Almost every guardianship we see for a parent with dementia could have been avoided with two documents signed a few years earlier. A durable power of attorney and a healthcare surrogate designation, executed while capacity existed, give the family everything a guardianship would, without the committee evaluation, the removal of rights, the annual court filings, or the five-figure cost. The comparison is stark: a few hundred dollars of drafting inside a flat-fee estate plan versus a lifetime of court supervision.

Both of our flat-fee estate plan packages include a durable power of attorney, healthcare surrogate, and living will: the Foundation plan at $1,500 for an individual or $2,200 for a couple, and the trust-based Legacy plan at $3,500 / $4,500. See the full breakdown on our pricing page, or start with the free estate planning checklist to see what your parent already has in place.

When Families Fight Over Guardianship

Guardianship has a quality most estate matters do not: it is adversarial by design, and it frequently turns siblings against each other. Two children each petition to serve. One accuses the other of isolating Mom or draining her accounts. A late-in-life spouse and the adult children square off over who controls care. These fights are common enough that Florida courts see them weekly.

This is where litigation experience earns its keep. Having spent years in courtrooms, we can usually spot the fight coming before it starts: the sibling who will object, the account activity that will draw an accusation, the appointment structure that will keep the peace. Sometimes the best lawyering in a guardianship case is arranging things so the contested hearing never happens.

What We Handle, and What We Refer Out

Plainly: The Kogan Firm handles incapacity planning, the powers of attorney, healthcare surrogates, living wills, and trusts that keep families out of guardianship, and probate administration when someone passes. We do not hold ourselves out as elder law specialists. For Medicaid planning, long-term-care asset protection, and contested elder-law matters, we refer families to board-certified elder law attorneys, and we are glad to point you to the right one. If your situation is mostly about qualifying a parent for nursing-home Medicaid, tell us that up front and we will save you a consultation fee by making the referral directly. Call (954) 281-8888 or book a free consultation online.