Updated August 14, 2026. Quick answer: Louisiana’s petition filing fee is a formula rather than a flat number, and the periodic accounting is annual, and split by role. Everything on this page is quoted from Louisiana’s own statutory text where it exists, and where Louisiana 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 Louisiana fixes by statute
| Item | What the text says | Where it says it |
|---|---|---|
| Petition filing fee | No flat fee exists. La. R.S. 13:841(A) sets a ceiling schedule: the clerks of the district courts ‘may be entitled to demand and receive fees of office, WHICH FEES MAY BE LESS THAN, BUT SHALL NOT EXCEED, the amounts set forth in this Section’ – initialization fee $20; filing a document $6 first page and $4 each subsequent page; exhibits up to 8.5×14 inches $2 per page, larger paper exhibits $5 per page and other exhibits $5 each; indexing each name $2. Electronic filing fees may not exceed the paper equivalent. | La. Rev. Stat. s.13:841(A)(1)-(3) |
| Bond | ‘The person appointed as the curator SHALL furnish security conditioned on the faithful discharge of his duties.’ The rules in La. C.C.P. arts. 4101-4102, 4131-4133 and 4136 apply to curatorship of interdicts, and ‘Provisions establishing special rules for natural tutors and parents SHALL NOT APPLY in the context of interdiction and curatorship.’ A sworn detailed descriptive list of fair market values is permitted in lieu of an inventory. | La. Code Civ. Proc. art. 4563(A)-(B) |
| Guardian ad litem and attorney fees | Not published here. Guardian ad litem and attorney fees is not stated on this page because no primary source returned the text; it could not be verified against statutory text; no value was established. This page will not print an estimate in its place. The route tried was https://law.justia.com/codes/louisiana/code-of-civil-procedure/article-4549/. | — |
| Periodic accounting or report | Annual, and split by role. ‘A curator with responsibility for AFFAIRS of the interdict shall file an ACCOUNT annually, upon the termination of his office, and at any other time ordered by the court. A curator with responsibility for the PERSON of an interdict shall file a PERSONAL REPORT describing the location and condition of the interdict annually, upon the termination of his responsibilities, and at any other time ordered by the court.’ At filing the curator must mail copies to the undercurator and any successor curator by first-class mail. | La. Code Civ. Proc. art. 4569(A) |
What the proceeding is called here. Interdiction, not guardianship. The protected adult is the interdict, the fiduciary is the curator, and an undercurator supervises. Grounds are in La. Civ. Code arts. 389-391; procedure in La. Code Civ. Proc. Arts. 4541-4569. A table that labels Louisiana’s row ‘guardianship’ is naming a proceeding that does not exist there.
The filing fee
No flat fee exists. La. R.S. 13:841(A) sets a ceiling schedule: the clerks of the district courts ‘may be entitled to demand and receive fees of office, WHICH FEES MAY BE LESS THAN, BUT SHALL NOT EXCEED, the amounts set forth in this Section’ – initialization fee $20; filing a document $6 first page and $4 each subsequent page; exhibits up to 8.5×14 inches $2 per page, larger paper exhibits $5 per page and other exhibits $5 each; indexing each name $2. Electronic filing fees may not exceed the paper equivalent.
It is not one number. The statute states it as: Ceiling schedule: $20 initialization + $6 first page + $4/subsequent page + $2/name indexed
Read at statute source on 2026-08-12: La. Rev. Stat. s.13:841(A)(1)-(3).
The bond
‘The person appointed as the curator SHALL furnish security conditioned on the faithful discharge of his duties.’ The rules in La. C.C.P. arts. 4101-4102, 4131-4133 and 4136 apply to curatorship of interdicts, and ‘Provisions establishing special rules for natural tutors and parents SHALL NOT APPLY in the context of interdiction and curatorship.’ A sworn detailed descriptive list of fair market values is permitted in lieu of an inventory.
Read at statute source on 2026-08-12: La. Code Civ. Proc. art. 4563(A)-(B).
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. Louisiana 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
Not published here. The guardian ad litem and attorney-fee provisions is not stated on this page because no primary source returned the text; it could not be verified against statutory text; no value was established. This page will not print an estimate in its place. The route tried was https://law.justia.com/codes/louisiana/code-of-civil-procedure/article-4549/.
How often you have to account
Annual, and split by role. 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.
Annual, and split by role. ‘A curator with responsibility for AFFAIRS of the interdict shall file an ACCOUNT annually, upon the termination of his office, and at any other time ordered by the court. A curator with responsibility for the PERSON of an interdict shall file a PERSONAL REPORT describing the location and condition of the interdict annually, upon the termination of his responsibilities, and at any other time ordered by the court.’ At filing the curator must mail copies to the undercurator and any successor curator by first-class mail.
Read at statute source on 2026-08-12: La. Code Civ. Proc. art. 4569(A).
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
Of the four things this page set out to establish from primary text, 1 could not be: guardian ad litem and attorney fees. Each is marked above with the route that was tried. 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 | La. Rev. Stat. s.13:841(A)(1)-(3) | statute | 2026-08-12 |
| Bond | La. Code Civ. Proc. art. 4563(A)-(B) | statute | 2026-08-12 |
| Periodic accounting or report | La. Code Civ. Proc. art. 4569(A) | 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 Louisiana: Louisiana Power of Attorney Requirements and Louisiana Advance Directive Requirements.