What Adult Guardianship Costs in the District of Columbia

Updated August 14, 2026. Quick answer: the District’s petition filing fee is a formula rather than a flat number, and there is no single accounting interval — split: guardian’s report at least semiannual; conservator’s account at least annual. Everything on this page is quoted from the jurisdiction’s own statute or an official court schedule, and where the District of Columbia 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 the District of Columbia fixes by statute

What the proceeding is called here. The District’s Guardianship, Protective Proceedings, and Durable Power of Attorney Act of 1986 (D.C. Code Title 21, Chapter 20) splits the roles: ‘Guardian of an Incapacitated Individual’ (of the person; D.C. Code §§ 21-2041-2049, Subchapter V) and ‘Conservator’ (of the property/estate; §§ 21-2051-2077, Subchapter vi) are separate offices, though one person may hold both for the same ward. Filings under this Act are collectively termed ‘intervention proceedings’ by the DC Superior Court Probate Division Rules (SCR-PD 301-361).

The filing fee

DC Superior Court Probate Division Rule 310(a) sets the filing fee at $0.00 for a guardianship petition and at $45.00 for a conservatorship or protective-proceeding petition. Separately, an ad valorem ‘court cost’ schedule applies only to conservatorships, based on the value of the conservatorship estate, but it is collected later — at the filing of the first account by the conservator — not at the time of the initiating petition (Rule 310(a) table and (b)). A DC Courts public information brochure (‘Now Filing for Guardianship/Conservatorship of an Adult,’ stamped ‘Brochure Updated 12/2015’) corroborates the $45 conservator/protective-order figure (‘A filing fee of $45.00 payable to “Register of Wills” is required if a conservator or protective order is requested’) but is a decade-old public-facing document, not itself the controlling rule text, and does not state the guardianship-fee-waiver as explicitly as Rule 310 does. Rule 310, hosted as the Superior Court’s currently promulgated Probate Division Rules on dccourts.gov, was used as the controlling source for the filing-fee amounts.

It is not one number. The statute states it as: Guardianship petition: $0 (no filing fee, Rule 310(a)(d)(E)). Conservatorship or protective-order petition: $45.00 filing fee, plus ad valorem court costs assessed later at first account on the value of the conservatorship estate: none under $2,500; $50 at $2,500-<$10,000; $100 at $10,000-<$25,000; $150 at $25,000-<$50,000; $250 at $50,000-<$75,000; $350 at $75,000-<$100,000; $575 at $100,000-<$500,000; $825 at $500,000-<$700,000; $1,275 at $700,000-<$1,000,000; $1,800 at $1,000,000-<$2,500,000; $2,300 at $2,500,000-<$5,000,000; $2,300 plus 0.02% of the excess over $5,000,000 at $5,000,000 and over.

(E) Filing fee Guardianship no fee Conservatorship or Protective Proceeding $45.00

Value of Conservatorship Costs Less than $ 2,500 None $ 2,500 but less than $ 10,000 $ 50 … $ 5,000,000 and over $ 2,300 plus 0.02% of excess over $5,000,000.

Read at official source on 2026-08-12: D.C. SCR-PD Rule 310 (Court costs); implements D.C. Code § 21-2001 et seq..

The bond

A bond is not automatic: the court may require a conservator to furnish one, conditioned on faithful discharge of the trust, with sureties the court specifies (D.C. Code § 21-2058). Absent a different court order, the penalty is set at the aggregate capital value of the estate property in the conservator’s control plus one year’s estimated income, minus the value of court-restricted securities and any real estate the conservator lacks power to sell without court authorization. DC SCR-PD Rule 332(b) exempts a bank or trust company authorized to act as a DC fiduciary from the bond requirement entirely. On who pays the bond premium: DC Probate Division Rule 334 (Termination of Conservatorship), in its official Comment implementing D.C. Code § 21-2075 and citing In re Estate of Dickson, 736 A.2d 1007 (D.C. 1999), states directly that bond premiums are a chargeable expense of administration paid from the protected individual’s/ward’s estate, alongside the guardian’s, conservator’s, attorneys’, examiner’s, visitor’s, and gal’s approved fees.

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 must be in the amount of the aggregate capital value of the property of the estate in the conservator’s control, plus 1 year’s estimated income, and minus the value of securities deposited under arrangements requiring an order of the court for their removal and the value of any land that the fiduciary, by express limitation of power, lacks power to sell or convey without court authorization.

Read at statute source on 2026-08-12: D.C. Code § 21-2058 (Bond); D.C. SCR-PD Rule 332 (Bonds — procedure/exemption); D.C. SCR-PD Rule 334 comment (premium allocation, citing D.C. Code § 21-2075 and In re Estate of Dickson, 736 A.2d 1007 (D.C. 1999)).

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. the District of Columbia is one of the few jurisdictions whose own text answers who bears it.

Expenses of administration include court costs; bond premiums; approved fees of a conservator, guardian, attorney for the conservator, guardian or protected individual, examiner, visitor, or guardian ad litem; and bank service fees. See In re Estate of Dickson, 736 A.2d 1007 (D.C., 1999).

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

D.C. Code § 21-2060(a): ‘any case reviewer, visitor, attorney, examiner, conservator, special conservator, guardian ad litem, or guardian is entitled to compensation for services rendered’ in a guardianship or protective proceeding, ‘as approved by order of the court.’ Compensation is paid first from the estate of the ward/protected person; if that estate ‘will be depleted by payouts made under this subsection,’ compensation instead comes from a District-administered fund — the ‘Guardianship Fund’ created by § 21-2060(b). Section 21-2060(a-1) creates a presumption of estate depletion (and thus Fund payment) for wards who qualify for SSI, Medicaid/Medicaid Expansion, other means-tested public assistance, or federal disability benefits, or who show inability to pay by affidavit. DC SCR-PD Rule 308 governs the compensation-petition procedure for guardians, conservators, GALs, attorneys, examiners and visitors alike: a verified petition detailing time, hourly rates, estate size and benefit to the estate, served with 20 days’ notice for objections, required before any payment from the estate or the Fund. No flat statutory rate/cap was found — compensation is ‘reasonable’ and case-by-case, subject to court approval.

As approved by order of the court, any case reviewer, visitor, attorney, examiner, conservator, special conservator, guardian ad litem, or guardian is entitled to compensation for services rendered either in a guardianship proceeding, protective proceeding, or in connection with a guardianship or protective arrangement. … Compensation shall be paid from the estate of the ward or person or, if the estate of the ward or person will be depleted by payouts made under this subsection, from a fund established by the District.

There is established within the General Fund of the District of Columbia a separate account to be known as the “Guardianship Fund” (“Fund”) and to be administered by the court.

Read at statute source on 2026-08-12: D.C. Code § 21-2060 (Compensation and expenses); D.C. SCR-PD Rule 308 (Compensation of guardians, conservators, attorneys, guardians ad litem, examiners and visitors).

How often you have to account

There is no single interval here. the District of Columbia runs two tracks at different cadences — Split: guardian’s report at least semiannual; conservator’s account at least annual — so which one binds you depends on what you were appointed to be. A table with one interval per state cannot represent this, and most published ones try. Your appointing court can order more often than the statutory minimum; the document that governs you is your order.

Two tracks, both genuinely at the frequency each statute states (no mislabeling trap found here for DC, unlike some states in earlier waves). The guardian (of the person) must submit a written report on the ward’s condition and estate-under-guardian-control ‘at least semiannually’ — D.C. Code § 21-2047(a)(5) — confirmed word-for-word in mechanism by DC SCR-PD Rule 328(a): first report due six months from appointment, each succeeding report at six-month intervals. The conservator (of the estate) must account to the court ‘at least annually on the anniversary date of appointment’ — D.C.

(5) Report in writing the condition of the ward and of the ward’s estate that has been subject to the guardian’s possession or control, as ordered by the court on petition of any person interested in the ward’s welfare or on any order of the court, but at least semiannually;

Each conservator shall account to the court for administration of the trust upon resignation or removal, at least annually on the anniversary date of appointment, and at other times as the court may direct.

Read at statute source on 2026-08-12: D.C. Code § 21-2047(a)(5) (guardian’s report — at least semiannually); D.C. Code § 21-2065(a),(d) (conservator’s account — at least annually); D.C. SCR-PD Rule 328 (Guardianship reports) and Rule 330 (Accounts and reports of conservators).

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

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.