Updated August 14, 2026. Quick answer: Alaska fixes the petition filing fee at $150 by statute, and the periodic accounting is annual (both tracks), with a nested triennial visitor report. Everything on this page is quoted from the jurisdiction’s own statute or an official court schedule, and where Alaska publishes no figure this page says so rather than printing an estimate. What drives the rest of the bill — lawyers, an investigation, a capacity evaluation — is on what guardianship costs.
What Alaska fixes by statute
| Item | What the text says | Where it says it |
|---|---|---|
| Petition filing fee | The Alaska Court System charges a flat $150 case-opening fee for a ‘Guardianship’ case, per the court’s own published fee table (effective 5/1/2023), which the court’s own adult-guardianship instructions (form pg-505) tell petitioners to pay ‘according to Administrative Rule 9’ when filing either pg-100 (petition for guardian) or pg-104 (petition for conservator). The fee is waivable for indigent petitioners via form tf-920. | Alaska R. Admin. 9 (Fee Schedule), as published at courts.alaska.gov/shc/courtfees.htm; petition provisions at AS 13.26.221 (guardian) and AS 13.26.415 (conservator) |
| Bond | Bond is discretionary, not automatic, and applies only to conservators (estate), not guardians of the person. AS 13.26.470(a): the court may require a conservator to furnish a bond, amount set as the aggregate capital value of estate property under the conservator’s control plus one year’s estimated income (minus certain excluded deposited securities/land). AS 13.26.470(b): if the public guardian is appointed conservator, no bond may be required. AS 13.26.470(c) directly answers who pays the bond premium: ‘If the court requires a conservator to provide a bond under this section and the conservator is financially unable to provide the bond, the court may order the cost of the bond to be paid from court funds.’ AS 13.26.475 sets surety terms (joint and several liability, consent to jurisdiction, etc.) but adds no separate premium-allocation rule. | AS 13.26.470; AS 13.26.475 |
| Guardian ad litem and attorney fees | Two separate cost regimes apply. Guardianship (person, AS 13.26.201-.296): AS 13.26.041 lets the court appoint a guardian ad litem for a ward/protected person/respondent who cannot communicate with or evaluate proceedings; AS 13.26.291 allocates cost — the Alaska Court System pays the visitor and expert appointed under AS 13.26.226(c); the respondent bears the cost of the AS 13.26.226(b) attorney, the AS 13.26.241(d) expert, and the AS 13.26.041 guardian ad litem, and ‘other court and guardianship costs’; the state pays all or part if needed to prevent the respondent from suffering financial hardship or becoming dependent on government/private aid; the court may shift costs to the petitioner if the proceeding was malicious, frivolous, or without just cause. The court’s own pg-505 instructions restate this in a plain-English cost table. Conservatorship (estate, AS 13.26.401-.595): AS 13.26.485 — any visitor, lawyer, physician, conservator, or special conservator appointed in a protective proceeding is entitled to ‘reasonable compensation from the estate’ if not otherwise compensated. No statutory dollar cap found in either regime. | AS 13.26.041; AS 13.26.291; AS 13.26.485 |
| Periodic accounting or report | Guardian (person): a guardianship implementation report is due within 90 days of the order (AS 13.26.271, one-time, not periodic); thereafter the guardian must submit a report ‘at least annually’ (AS 13.26.276(a)); and ‘every third year, the court shall appoint a visitor to file a report reviewing the guardianship’ — i.e. A triennial visitor report layered on top of the guardian’s own annual report. Conservator (estate): an implementation report/inventory is due within 90 days of the order (AS 13.26.505, one-time); thereafter the conservator ‘shall submit a report to the court at least every year’ (AS 13.26.510) — straightforwardly annual, no triennial layer found for conservators. No dollar filing fee specific to these periodic reports was found in statute or on the court’s case-opening fee table (which lists only the one-time case-opening ‘Guardianship $150’ line, not a per-report fee). | AS 13.26.271; AS 13.26.276; AS 13.26.505; AS 13.26.510 |
What the proceeding is called here. Guardianship of the person (AS 13.26.201-.296) and conservatorship of the estate (AS 13.26.401-.595) are separate offices under Alaska’s Uniform Probate Code. Citation trap, confirmed this session: this chapter was renumbered wholesale, so every pre-renumbering citation is dead and much of the published guidance still uses them. The code’s own bracketed notes show it directly – AS 13.26.005 reads ‘[Renumbered as AS 13.26.021, 13.26.031 and 13.26.051.]’, and AS 13.26.205-.210 and .215 and .220 read ‘[Renumbered as AS 13.26.440-.465]’ and ‘[Renumbered as AS 13.26.470.]’ and ‘[Renumbered as AS 13.26.475.]’. Use the current numbers; treat any source citing AS 13.26.005-.220 as pre-renumbering.
The filing fee
The Alaska Court System charges a flat $150 case-opening fee for a ‘Guardianship’ case, per the court’s own published fee table (effective 5/1/2023), which the court’s own adult-guardianship instructions (form pg-505) tell petitioners to pay ‘according to Administrative Rule 9’ when filing either pg-100 (petition for guardian) or pg-104 (petition for conservator). The fee is waivable for indigent petitioners via form tf-920.
Filing fees are set forth in Administrative Rule 9 , Fee Schedule.
File the original, notarized petition … and pay the filing fee according to Administrative Rule 9 (a list of current fees is online at ak-courts.info/courtfees). … If you can
Read at official source on 2026-08-12: Alaska R. Admin. 9 (Fee Schedule), as published at courts.alaska.gov/shc/courtfees.htm; petition provisions at AS 13.26.221 (guardian) and AS 13.26.415 (conservator).
The bond
Bond is discretionary, not automatic, and applies only to conservators (estate), not guardians of the person. AS 13.26.470(a): the court may require a conservator to furnish a bond, amount set as the aggregate capital value of estate property under the conservator’s control plus one year’s estimated income (minus certain excluded deposited securities/land). AS 13.26.470(b): if the public guardian is appointed conservator, no bond may be required. AS 13.26.470(c) directly answers who pays the bond premium: ‘If the court requires a conservator to provide a bond under this section and the conservator is financially unable to provide the bond, the court may order the cost of the bond to be paid from court funds.’ AS 13.26.475 sets surety terms (joint and several liability, consent to jurisdiction, etc.) but adds no separate premium-allocation rule.
(a) The court may require a conservator to furnish a bond conditioned upon faithful discharge of all duties of the trust according to law, with sureties as it shall specify. Unless otherwise directed, the bond shall be in the amount of the aggregate capital value of the property of the estate in the conservator’s control plus one year’s estimated income minus the value of securities deposited under arrangements requiring an order of the court for their removal and the value of any land which the fiduciary, by express limitation of power, lacks power to sell or convey without court authorization.
(c) If the court requires a conservator to provide a bond under this section and the conservator is financially unable to provide the bond, the court may order the cost of the bond to be paid from court funds.
Read at statute source on 2026-08-12: AS 13.26.470; AS 13.26.475.
Who pays the premium. A surety bond carries a recurring premium, and it is usually the largest ongoing cost of a guardianship of the estate. Alaska is one of the few jurisdictions whose own text answers who bears it.
(c) If the court requires a conservator to provide a bond under this section and the conservator is financially unable to provide the bond, the court may order the cost of the bond to be paid from court funds.
That is a rule about who pays, not a published price. No authority publishes what a bond actually costs, because a surety prices it against the estate.
Guardian ad litem and attorney fees
Two separate cost regimes apply. Guardianship (person, AS 13.26.201-.296): AS 13.26.041 lets the court appoint a guardian ad litem for a ward/protected person/respondent who cannot communicate with or evaluate proceedings; AS 13.26.291 allocates cost — the Alaska Court System pays the visitor and expert appointed under AS 13.26.226(c); the respondent bears the cost of the AS 13.26.226(b) attorney, the AS 13.26.241(d) expert, and the AS 13.26.041 guardian ad litem, and ‘other court and guardianship costs’; the state pays all or part if needed to prevent the respondent from suffering financial hardship or becoming dependent on government/private aid; the court may shift costs to the petitioner if the proceeding was malicious, frivolous, or without just cause. The court’s own pg-505 instructions restate this in a plain-English cost table. Conservatorship (estate, AS 13.26.401-.595): AS 13.26.485 — any visitor, lawyer, physician, conservator, or special conservator appointed in a protective proceeding is entitled to ‘reasonable compensation from the estate’ if not otherwise compensated. No statutory dollar cap found in either regime.
Subject to (c) and (d) of this section, the respondent shall bear the costs of the attorney appointed under AS 13.26.226(b), of the expert appointed under AS 13.26.241(d), of the guardian ad litem appointed under AS 13.26.041, and of other court and guardianship costs incurred under this chapter.
The state shall pay all or part of the costs described in (b) of this section if the court finds that the payment is necessary to prevent the respondent from suffering financial hardship…
Read at statute source on 2026-08-12: AS 13.26.041; AS 13.26.291; AS 13.26.485.
How often you have to account
Annual (both tracks), with a nested triennial visitor report. Do not carry that assumption across a state line: the interval is set by each state separately, several are biennial or triennial, and your own appointing court can order more often than the statutory minimum. The document that governs you is your order.
Guardian (person): a guardianship implementation report is due within 90 days of the order (AS 13.26.271, one-time, not periodic); thereafter the guardian must submit a report ‘at least annually’ (AS 13.26.276(a)); and ‘every third year, the court shall appoint a visitor to file a report reviewing the guardianship’ — i.e. A triennial visitor report layered on top of the guardian’s own annual report. Conservator (estate): an implementation report/inventory is due within 90 days of the order (AS 13.26.505, one-time); thereafter the conservator ‘shall submit a report to the court at least every year’ (AS 13.26.510) — straightforwardly annual, no triennial layer found for conservators. No dollar filing fee specific to these periodic reports was found in statute or on the court’s case-opening fee table (which lists only the one-time case-opening ‘Guardianship $150’ line, not a per-report fee).
(a) A guardian shall submit a report to the court at least annually. In addition, every third year, the court shall appoint a visitor to file a report reviewing the guardianship during the period since the last visitor’s report, if any.
A conservator shall submit a report to the court at least every year.
Read at statute source on 2026-08-12: AS 13.26.271; AS 13.26.276; AS 13.26.505; AS 13.26.510.
What an accounting has to contain, and the duties that come with it, are on the guardian accounting duties page.
What this page does not tell you
All four items this page set out to establish were read at primary and are stated above with their cites. What is missing everywhere, in every state, is a price: what an attorney charges to bring an uncontested petition, what a court-ordered capacity evaluation or investigation costs, and what a surety charges for the bond. None of it is published by any authority, and this page does not estimate it.
Where this fits
The filing fee is the smallest part of what a guardianship costs, and the national page sets out the costs that are larger and are not published anywhere. If nobody has been appointed yet, the comparison that actually matters is against the document that avoids this proceeding entirely — guardianship against a power of attorney.
Sources
| Item | Citation | Tier | Read |
|---|---|---|---|
| Petition filing fee | Alaska R. Admin. 9 (Fee Schedule), as published at courts.alaska.gov/shc/courtfees.htm; petition provisions at AS 13.26.221 (guardian) and AS 13.26.415 (conservator) | official | 2026-08-12 |
| Bond | AS 13.26.470; AS 13.26.475 | statute | 2026-08-12 |
| Guardian ad litem and attorney fees | AS 13.26.041; AS 13.26.291; AS 13.26.485 | statute | 2026-08-12 |
| Periodic accounting or report | AS 13.26.271; AS 13.26.276; AS 13.26.505; AS 13.26.510 | statute | 2026-08-12 |
General consumer information, not legal, tax or financial advice. Guardianship and conservatorship are governed by STATE law and differ materially between states; every figure here is quoted from the cited source as read on the date shown and changes without notice. Read as of August 14, 2026.
Also on Alaska: Alaska Power of Attorney Requirements and Alaska Advance Directive Requirements.