Updated August 14, 2026. Quick answer: Idaho fixes the petition filing fee at $170 by statute, and the periodic accounting is annual (‘at least annually’). Everything on this page is quoted from the jurisdiction’s own statute or an official court schedule, and where Idaho 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 Idaho fixes by statute
| Item | What the text says | Where it says it |
|---|---|---|
| Petition filing fee | Adult guardianship/conservatorship petitions are probate matters assigned to the magistrate division under Idaho Code §1-2208(2) (‘administration of estates of decedents, minors and incompetents’). The magistrate-division civil filing fee is $120 (district-court fee would be $175 if not assigned to magistrate) per §31-3201A(1). In addition, §31-3201G(1)(a) — in Title 31 (Counties), not in the guardianship chapter itself — imposes a further mandatory $50 surcharge ‘for filing cases involving guardianships or conservatorships,’ remitted to the Guardianship and Conservatorship Project Fund. Combined ordinary cost to file at the magistrate level: $170. | Idaho Code §§ 31-3201A(1), 31-3201G(1)(a); 1-2208(2) |
| Bond | Bond for a conservator (estate/property protection) is discretionary with the court under §15-5-411: ‘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.’ If ordered, the default amount formula is set in the same section. The court may accept other security (pledge of securities, mortgage of land) in lieu of sureties. Idaho’s guardian-of-the-person statutes (Part 3, §§15-5-301 through 322) contain no parallel bond requirement — bond in Chapter 5 attaches only to conservators of the estate, not guardians of the person. This is a confirmed absence, not a missed search. | Idaho Code § 15-5-411 (bond); § 15-5-412 (terms and requirements of bonds) |
| Guardian ad litem and attorney fees | Idaho guardianship proceedings use both a ‘visitor’ (§15-5-308: an officer of the court, either a court employee or court-appointed, with no personal interest in the case, who investigates and reports to the court on the person proposed to be under guardianship) and a ‘guardian ad litem’ who advocates for the ward (§§15-5-315/316 govern the GAL in guardianship proceedings; §§15-5-434/435 govern the GAL in conservatorship/protective proceedings — §15-5-308(4) bars the same person/entity from serving as both visitor and GAL). Compensation for the visitor, GAL, physician, guardian, or temporary guardian is set by §15-5-314 (guardianship) and §15-5-414 (conservatorship, nearly identical text): each is ‘entitled to reasonable compensation from the estate for services rendered and expenses incurred,’ and any person who brings or defends the proceeding in good faith is entitled to recover from the estate ‘necessary expenses and disbursements including reasonable attorney’s fees.’ If the estate is inadequate, the court may instead apportion those costs ‘to any party, or among the parties, as the court deems reasonable’ — i.e., cost can shift off the estate onto a party when the estate can’t cover it. No statutory dollar-rate cap was found for GAL/counsel fees. | Idaho Code §§ 15-5-308 (visitor), 15-5-314 (compensation, guardianship), 15-5-315 & 15-5-316 (guardian ad litem duties/rights, guardianship), 15-5-414 (compensation, conservatorship), 15-5-434 & 15-5-435 (guardian ad litem duties/rights, conservatorship) |
| Periodic accounting or report | Reporting frequency for conservators is explicit in §15-5-419(1): ‘Every conservator shall file with the court an inventory within ninety (90) days of appointment, an accounting at least annually, and a final accounting at the termination of the appointment of the conservator.’ This is genuinely annual (or more often), not a trap in Idaho’s case. The fee for the required report/accounting itself is set outside Chapter 15-5 entirely, in Idaho Code §31-3201G(1)(b)-(c): $41.00 per report filed by a conservator, $25.00 per report filed by a guardian (both surcharges fund the same Guardianship and Conservatorship Project Fund as the $50 filing surcharge in the petition filing fee above). | Idaho Code § 15-5-419(1) (frequency); § 31-3201G(1)(b)-(c) (report fees) |
What the proceeding is called here. Idaho Code Title 15, Chapter 5 (the Idaho Uniform Probate Code) currently separates guardianship of the person of an incapacitated adult (Part 3, captioned ‘GUARDIANS OF INCAPACITATED PERSONS’) from conservatorship of the property/estate (Part 4, captioned ‘PROTECTION OF PROPERTY OF PERSONS UNDER DISABILITY AND MINORS’); a person can have a guardian, a conservator, or both. Effective 2027-01-01 (not yet in force as of 2026-08-12) the chapter is replaced by the Uniform Guardianship, Conservatorship, and Other Protective Arrangements Act, which relabels Part 3 ‘GUARDIANSHIP OF ADULT’ and Part 4 ‘conservatorship’ but keeps the person/estate split.
The filing fee
Adult guardianship/conservatorship petitions are probate matters assigned to the magistrate division under Idaho Code §1-2208(2) (‘administration of estates of decedents, minors and incompetents’). The magistrate-division civil filing fee is $120 (district-court fee would be $175 if not assigned to magistrate) per §31-3201A(1). In addition, §31-3201G(1)(a) — in Title 31 (Counties), not in the guardianship chapter itself — imposes a further mandatory $50 surcharge ‘for filing cases involving guardianships or conservatorships,’ remitted to the Guardianship and Conservatorship Project Fund. Combined ordinary cost to file at the magistrate level: $170.
It is not one number. The statute states it as: $120 magistrate-division civil filing fee (§31-3201A(1)) + $50 guardianship/conservatorship project-fund surcharge (§31-3201G(1)(a)) = $170, assuming magistrate-division filing (the norm for incompetency/probate matters per §1-2208(2)). If filed in the district court instead of magistrate division, the base fee is $175 instead of $120, i.e. $225 total.
A fee of one hundred seventy-five dollars ($175) for filing a civil case of any type in the district court, except for those cases to be assigned to the magistrate division of the district court for which the fee shall be one hundred twenty dollars ($120)…
Fifty dollars ($50.00) for filing cases involving guardianships or conservatorships.
Read at statute source on 2026-08-12: Idaho Code §§ 31-3201A(1), 31-3201G(1)(a); 1-2208(2).
The bond
Bond for a conservator (estate/property protection) is discretionary with the court under §15-5-411: ‘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.’ If ordered, the default amount formula is set in the same section. The court may accept other security (pledge of securities, mortgage of land) in lieu of sureties. Idaho’s guardian-of-the-person statutes (Part 3, §§15-5-301 through 322) contain no parallel bond requirement — bond in Chapter 5 attaches only to conservators of the estate, not guardians of the person. This is a confirmed absence, not a missed search.
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 his control plus one (1) year’s estimated income minus the value of securities deposited under arrangements requiring an order by the court for their removal…
Read at statute source on 2026-08-12: Idaho Code § 15-5-411 (bond); § 15-5-412 (terms and requirements of bonds).
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. Idaho 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
Idaho guardianship proceedings use both a ‘visitor’ (§15-5-308: an officer of the court, either a court employee or court-appointed, with no personal interest in the case, who investigates and reports to the court on the person proposed to be under guardianship) and a ‘guardian ad litem’ who advocates for the ward (§§15-5-315/316 govern the GAL in guardianship proceedings; §§15-5-434/435 govern the GAL in conservatorship/protective proceedings — §15-5-308(4) bars the same person/entity from serving as both visitor and GAL). Compensation for the visitor, GAL, physician, guardian, or temporary guardian is set by §15-5-314 (guardianship) and §15-5-414 (conservatorship, nearly identical text): each is ‘entitled to reasonable compensation from the estate for services rendered and expenses incurred,’ and any person who brings or defends the proceeding in good faith is entitled to recover from the estate ‘necessary expenses and disbursements including reasonable attorney’s fees.’ If the estate is inadequate, the court may instead apportion those costs ‘to any party, or among the parties, as the court deems reasonable’ — i.e., cost can shift off the estate onto a party when the estate can’t cover it. No statutory dollar-rate cap was found for GAL/counsel fees.
If not otherwise compensated for services rendered or expenses incurred, any visitor, guardian ad litem, physician, guardian, or temporary guardian appointed in a protective proceeding is entitled to reasonable compensation from the estate for services rendered and expenses incurred in such status… If the estate is inadequate to bear any of the reasonable compensation, fees, and/or costs referenced in this section, the court may apportion the reasonable compensation, fees, and/or costs to any party, or among the parties, as the court deems reasonable.
A visitor cannot serve as guardian ad litem. The visitor and the guardian ad litem for the person proposed to be under guardianship may not be members or employees of the same entity.
Read at statute source on 2026-08-12: Idaho Code §§ 15-5-308 (visitor), 15-5-314 (compensation, guardianship), 15-5-315 & 15-5-316 (guardian ad litem duties/rights, guardianship), 15-5-414 (compensation, conservatorship), 15-5-434 & 15-5-435 (guardian ad litem duties/rights, conservatorship).
How often you have to account
Annual (‘at least annually’). 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.
Reporting frequency for conservators is explicit in §15-5-419(1): ‘Every conservator shall file with the court an inventory within ninety (90) days of appointment, an accounting at least annually, and a final accounting at the termination of the appointment of the conservator.’ This is genuinely annual (or more often), not a trap in Idaho’s case. The fee for the required report/accounting itself is set outside Chapter 15-5 entirely, in Idaho Code §31-3201G(1)(b)-(c): $41.00 per report filed by a conservator, $25.00 per report filed by a guardian (both surcharges fund the same Guardianship and Conservatorship Project Fund as the $50 filing surcharge in the petition filing fee above).
Every conservator shall file with the court an inventory within ninety (90) days of appointment, an accounting at least annually, and a final accounting at the termination of the appointment of the conservator.
(b) Forty-one dollars ($41.00) for reports required to be filed with the court by conservators; and (c) Twenty-five dollars ($25.00) for reports required to be filed with the court by guardians.
Read at statute source on 2026-08-12: Idaho Code § 15-5-419(1) (frequency); § 31-3201G(1)(b)-(c) (report fees).
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 | Idaho Code §§ 31-3201A(1), 31-3201G(1)(a); 1-2208(2) | statute | 2026-08-12 |
| Bond | Idaho Code § 15-5-411 (bond); § 15-5-412 (terms and requirements of bonds) | statute | 2026-08-12 |
| Guardian ad litem and attorney fees | Idaho Code §§ 15-5-308 (visitor), 15-5-314 (compensation, guardianship), 15-5-315 & 15-5-316 (guardian ad litem duties/rights, guardianship), 15-5-414 (compensation, conservatorship), 15-5-434 & 15-5-435 (guardian ad litem duties/rights, conservatorship) | statute | 2026-08-12 |
| Periodic accounting or report | Idaho Code § 15-5-419(1) (frequency); § 31-3201G(1)(b)-(c) (report fees) | 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.