Updated August 14, 2026. Quick answer: Indiana fixes the petition filing fee at $120 by statute, and the periodic accounting is not annual — it is not annual. Everything on this page is quoted from the jurisdiction’s own statute or an official court schedule, and where Indiana 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 Indiana fixes by statute
| Item | What the text says | Where it says it |
|---|---|---|
| Petition filing fee | A probate costs fee of $120 for each action filed under ic 29 (probate), collected from the filing party, plus the enumerated additional fees required under ic 33-37-5 (document, document storage, automated record keeping, public defense administration, judicial insurance adjustment, judicial salaries, court administration, pro bono legal services). | Ind. Code s.33-37-4-7(a) |
| Bond | A guardian must execute and file a bond unless the court finds a bond unnecessary and enters an order to that effect, or the guardian is a bank or trust company. Default amount = aggregate value of the guardianship property, plus one year’s estimated income, minus the value of any property the guardian lacks power to sell/convey/encumber without a court order. The court may accept other collateral instead of sureties, or fix a reduced bond if it directs the property into listed securities or a restricted savings account. | Ind. Code s.29-3-7-1(a)-(c) |
| Guardian ad litem and attorney fees | The court shall appoint a guardian ad litem to represent the interests of the alleged incapacitated person or minor if it determines the person is not represented or not adequately represented by counsel, and ‘shall set out its reasons for appointing a guardian ad litem’ as part of the record. One GAL may represent several persons or interests absent a conflict. | Ind. Code s.29-3-2-3(a) |
| Periodic accounting or report | Not annual. Unless the court directs otherwise, a guardian (other than a temporary guardian) files a written verified account of administration at least biennially, not more than 30 days after the anniversary date of appointment, and again within 30 days after termination. The court shall conduct a hearing on each account and give notice to the listed persons. | Ind. Code s.29-3-9-6(a), (c), (d) |
What the proceeding is called here. Guardianship (ic 29-3) covers both person and property; Indiana has no separate ‘conservator’.
The filing fee
A probate costs fee of $120 for each action filed under ic 29 (probate), collected from the filing party, plus the enumerated additional fees required under ic 33-37-5 (document, document storage, automated record keeping, public defense administration, judicial insurance adjustment, judicial salaries, court administration, pro bono legal services).
Read at statute source on 2026-08-12: Ind. Code s.33-37-4-7(a).
The bond
A guardian must execute and file a bond unless the court finds a bond unnecessary and enters an order to that effect, or the guardian is a bank or trust company. Default amount = aggregate value of the guardianship property, plus one year’s estimated income, minus the value of any property the guardian lacks power to sell/convey/encumber without a court order. The court may accept other collateral instead of sureties, or fix a reduced bond if it directs the property into listed securities or a restricted savings account.
Read at statute source on 2026-08-12: Ind. Code s.29-3-7-1(a)-(c).
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. Indiana 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
The court shall appoint a guardian ad litem to represent the interests of the alleged incapacitated person or minor if it determines the person is not represented or not adequately represented by counsel, and ‘shall set out its reasons for appointing a guardian ad litem’ as part of the record. One GAL may represent several persons or interests absent a conflict.
Read at statute source on 2026-08-12: Ind. Code s.29-3-2-3(a).
How often you have to account
Not annual: Not annual. 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.
Not annual. Unless the court directs otherwise, a guardian (other than a temporary guardian) files a written verified account of administration at least biennially, not more than 30 days after the anniversary date of appointment, and again within 30 days after termination. The court shall conduct a hearing on each account and give notice to the listed persons.
at least biennially, not more than thirty (30) days after the anniversary date of the guardian’s appointment
Read at statute source on 2026-08-12: Ind. Code s.29-3-9-6(a), (c), (d).
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 | Ind. Code s.33-37-4-7(a) | statute | 2026-08-12 |
| Bond | Ind. Code s.29-3-7-1(a)-(c) | statute | 2026-08-12 |
| Guardian ad litem and attorney fees | Ind. Code s.29-3-2-3(a) | statute | 2026-08-12 |
| Periodic accounting or report | Ind. Code s.29-3-9-6(a), (c), (d) | 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 Indiana: Indiana Small Estate Affidavit and Indiana Power of Attorney Requirements and How Much Does a Will Cost in Indiana?.