Updated August 14, 2026. Quick answer: Delaware fixes the petition filing fee at $125 by statute, and the periodic accounting is not annual — it is not annual: first account at 1 year, thereafter court-set but not more often than once in 2 years absent a special occasion; guardian of the person has no duty to account at all. Everything on this page is quoted from the jurisdiction’s own statute or an official court schedule, and where Delaware 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 Delaware fixes by statute
| Item | What the text says | Where it says it |
|---|---|---|
| Petition filing fee | The Court of Chancery’s own published Schedule of Fees and Charges (issued under Court of Chancery Rule 3(e), effective June 14, 2024) sets a flat $125 fee to file a petition to appoint a guardian for a person without capacity, inclusive of all initial filing fees. This is a single flat amount, not ad valorem. A web search surfaced a competing, uncorroborated claim of ‘$135.00 plus $2.00 per page scanning fee’ from a secondary/aggregator-style result; that figure does not appear in the Court’s own PDF fee schedule actually read this session, so it is treated as unverified and not used as the value. | Court of Chancery Rule 3(e); Court of Chancery Schedule of Fees and Charges (eff. June 14, 2024), Part E.1.a |
| Bond | A bond is required of every appointed guardian before entering on the guardianship (12 Del. C. § 3905(a)), in a penal sum fixed by the Court of Chancery — per the Court’s own Handbook for Guardians of Adults with Disabilities (Form CM150, Rev. 03/2026), that sum is ‘generally equivalent to the value of the Protected Person’s assets, plus one year of the Protected Person’s income.’ The Court may waive bond and/or surety, or reduce surety, for good cause at any time (§ 3905(c)). Per the Handbook, the Court’s actual practice is that surety (i.e., an insurance/bonding-company bond that costs a premium) is typically not required when the bond amount is set below $1 million — so in the ordinary/lower-asset case there is no bond premium cost at all. Where a public agency is the petitioner and the estate is insufficient to cover costs, the Court may waive bond, surety, and all costs/fees entirely (§ 3905(d)). no statutory or Handbook provision was found addressing who pays the bond premium in the less-common cases where surety is actually required. | 12 Del. C. § 3905 |
| Guardian ad litem and attorney fees | Delaware’s adult-guardianship chapter guarantees the respondent representation by counsel (12 Del. C. § 3901(c)) and, per the Court of Chancery’s official Handbook, the Court appoints an ‘attorney ad litem’ (Delaware’s functional equivalent of a GAL/court-appointed counsel role for this proceeding) when it issues the preliminary order. Per the Handbook: the attorney ad litem’s fees are capped at $750 by Court rule, unless the case becomes contested or the Court approves a greater fee for extraordinary time/expense. Fees are ultimately the petitioner’s responsibility, though the Court may authorize payment from the Protected Person’s (ward’s) assets in an appropriate case, or pay the attorney ad litem from Court funds if the petitioner is indigent and has an approved in forma pauperis application. | 12 Del. C. § 3901(c) (right to counsel); Court of Chancery practice per Handbook for Guardians of Adults with Disabilities, Form CM150 — no specific dollar cap was located directly in Title 12 statutory text itself, only in the Court’s official rule-implementing Handbook. |
| Periodic accounting or report | Frequency is explicitly not simply annual on an ongoing basis: a guardian of the property must render a first account at the end of 1 year from appointment, and thereafter only as the Court of Chancery requires — but the Court may not require accountings more often than once every 2 years, absent a ‘special occasion’ (12 Del. C. § 3943). A guardian of the person (as opposed to the property) has no duty to account at all, absent a specific court order (§ 3941(a)). trap flag: the research lead for this jurisdiction pointed to ’12 Del. C. § 3914′ as a possible annual-accounting section — that citation is repealed. The Delaware Code’s own current chapter index for Subchapter I lists the range ‘§§ 3911-3915. [Repealed]’, so § 3914 has no live text; the operative accounting-duty and frequency sections are § 3941 (duty to account) and § 3943 (timing), located in Subchapter iii, not § 3914. The filing fee for the accounting itself is tiered by the dollar value of principal and income in the account (not a flat number), per the Court’s official Schedule of Fees and Charges: $10 if the account is $1,000 or less; $20 for $1,000.01-$5,000; $60 for $5,000.01-$15,000; plus $15 per additional $1,000 (or part thereof) above $15,000; plus $1 per page; or a flat $10 if the account is filed electronically. | 12 Del. C. §§ 3941, 3943; Court of Chancery Schedule of Fees and Charges, Part G |
What the proceeding is called here. Delaware calls the proceeding ‘guardianship’ of a ‘person with a disability,’ codified at 12 Del. C. Chapter 39 (‘Guardianship’) plus the jurisdictional Chapter 39A (Uniform Adult Guardianship and Protective Proceedings Jurisdiction Act). The court of chancery — not a probate court — has exclusive power to appoint guardians of the person, of the property, or both (which may be different people) for an adult who is ‘unable properly to manage or care for their own person or property’ (§ 3901(a)(2)). Delaware does not use the word ‘conservator’ in this chapter; decedents’ estates are handled separately through the Register of Wills, not the Court of Chancery.
The filing fee
The Court of Chancery’s own published Schedule of Fees and Charges (issued under Court of Chancery Rule 3(e), effective June 14, 2024) sets a flat $125 fee to file a petition to appoint a guardian for a person without capacity, inclusive of all initial filing fees. This is a single flat amount, not ad valorem. A web search surfaced a competing, uncorroborated claim of ‘$135.00 plus $2.00 per page scanning fee’ from a secondary/aggregator-style result; that figure does not appear in the Court’s own PDF fee schedule actually read this session, so it is treated as unverified and not used as the value.
Read at official source on 2026-08-12: Court of Chancery Rule 3(e); Court of Chancery Schedule of Fees and Charges (eff. June 14, 2024), Part E.1.a.
The bond
A bond is required of every appointed guardian before entering on the guardianship (12 Del. C. § 3905(a)), in a penal sum fixed by the Court of Chancery — per the Court’s own Handbook for Guardians of Adults with Disabilities (Form CM150, Rev. 03/2026), that sum is ‘generally equivalent to the value of the Protected Person’s assets, plus one year of the Protected Person’s income.’ The Court may waive bond and/or surety, or reduce surety, for good cause at any time (§ 3905(c)). Per the Handbook, the Court’s actual practice is that surety (i.e., an insurance/bonding-company bond that costs a premium) is typically not required when the bond amount is set below $1 million — so in the ordinary/lower-asset case there is no bond premium cost at all. Where a public agency is the petitioner and the estate is insufficient to cover costs, the Court may waive bond, surety, and all costs/fees entirely (§ 3905(d)). no statutory or Handbook provision was found addressing who pays the bond premium in the less-common cases where surety is actually required.
Every person appointed guardian shall, unless bond and/or surety is dispensed with by the Court, become bound, with surety, to the person with a disability in a penal sum to be fixed by the Court.
The Court may, at any time for good cause, waive the requirements of bond and/or surety, or reduce surety in any case where bond is required.
Read at statute source on 2026-08-12: 12 Del. C. § 3905.
Who pays the premium is not answered. A surety bond carries a recurring premium and it is usually the largest ongoing cost of a guardianship of the estate. Delaware states no express rule on who bears it in the chapter read for this page, and no figure for what one costs is published anywhere this project could verify. That is a gap in the law and in the published record, not a gap we have filled with a guess.
Guardian ad litem and attorney fees
Delaware’s adult-guardianship chapter guarantees the respondent representation by counsel (12 Del. C. § 3901(c)) and, per the Court of Chancery’s official Handbook, the Court appoints an ‘attorney ad litem’ (Delaware’s functional equivalent of a GAL/court-appointed counsel role for this proceeding) when it issues the preliminary order. Per the Handbook: the attorney ad litem’s fees are capped at $750 by Court rule, unless the case becomes contested or the Court approves a greater fee for extraordinary time/expense. Fees are ultimately the petitioner’s responsibility, though the Court may authorize payment from the Protected Person’s (ward’s) assets in an appropriate case, or pay the attorney ad litem from Court funds if the petitioner is indigent and has an approved in forma pauperis application.
“The attorney ad litem usually charges fees for his or her services. The Court’s rules dictate that the attorney ad litem’s fees not exceed $750, unless the case become[s] contested, or the Court approves a greater fee… Ultimately the attorney ad litem’s fees are the Petitioner’s responsibility. However, the Court may authorize these fees to be paid from the Protected Person’s assets in the appropriate situation. If the Petitioner is indigent and has an approved in forma pauperis application, the Court may pay the attorney ad litem from Court funds.”
Read at official source on 2026-08-12: 12 Del. C. § 3901(c) (right to counsel); Court of Chancery practice per Handbook for Guardians of Adults with Disabilities, Form CM150 — no specific dollar cap was located directly in Title 12 statutory text itself, only in the Court’s official rule-implementing Handbook..
How often you have to account
Not annual: Not annual: first account at 1 year, thereafter court-set but not more often than once in 2 years absent a special occasion; guardian of the person has no duty to account at all. This is the correction most published guidance gets wrong, because it generalises one state’s cadence to all of them. Your own appointing court can order more often than the statutory minimum, and the document that governs you is your order.
Frequency is explicitly not simply annual on an ongoing basis: a guardian of the property must render a first account at the end of 1 year from appointment, and thereafter only as the Court of Chancery requires — but the Court may not require accountings more often than once every 2 years, absent a ‘special occasion’ (12 Del. C. § 3943). A guardian of the person (as opposed to the property) has no duty to account at all, absent a specific court order (§ 3941(a)). trap flag: the research lead for this jurisdiction pointed to ’12 Del. C. § 3914′ as a possible annual-accounting section — that citation is repealed. The Delaware Code’s own current chapter index for Subchapter I lists the range ‘§§ 3911-3915. [Repealed]’, so § 3914 has no live text; the operative accounting-duty and frequency sections are § 3941 (duty to account) and § 3943 (timing), located in Subchapter iii, not § 3914. The filing fee for the accounting itself is tiered by the dollar value of principal and income in the account (not a flat number), per the Court’s official Schedule of Fees and Charges: $10 if the account is $1,000 or less; $20 for $1,000.01-$5,000; $60 for $5,000.01-$15,000; plus $15 per additional $1,000 (or part thereof) above $15,000; plus $1 per page; or a flat $10 if the account is filed electronically.
Every guardian of the property shall render an account of the guardianship at the end of 1 year from the guardian’s appointment and afterwards as the Court of Chancery in which such guardian was appointed requires, but not more often than once in 2 years, unless there is a special occasion.
(a) A guardian of the property shall fully account, in accordance with this subchapter, for all the money, effects and property of the person with a disability which the guardian has received, but a guardian of the person shall have no duty to account or otherwise report to the Court, except as provided by order of the Court.
Read at statute source on 2026-08-12: 12 Del. C. §§ 3941, 3943; Court of Chancery Schedule of Fees and Charges, Part G.
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 | Court of Chancery Rule 3(e); Court of Chancery Schedule of Fees and Charges (eff. June 14, 2024), Part E.1.a | official | 2026-08-12 |
| Bond | 12 Del. C. § 3905 | statute | 2026-08-12 |
| Guardian ad litem and attorney fees | 12 Del. C. § 3901(c) (right to counsel); Court of Chancery practice per Handbook for Guardians of Adults with Disabilities, Form CM150 — no specific dollar cap was located directly in Title 12 statutory text itself, only in the Court’s official rule-implementing Handbook. | official | 2026-08-12 |
| Periodic accounting or report | 12 Del. C. §§ 3941, 3943; Court of Chancery Schedule of Fees and Charges, Part G | 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.