Updated September 3, 2026. Quick answer: $275, effective January 1, 2026 (rising to $300 on 1/1/2027 and $325 on 1/1/2028 under a statutory phase-in), for probate estates/conservatorships/guardianships, fixed by the general court-clerk fee statute rather than Title 34 itself. The periodic accounting is annual. Everything on this page is quoted from Tennessee’s own statutory text where it exists, and where Tennessee 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 Tennessee fixes by statute
| Item | What the text says | Where it says it |
|---|---|---|
| Petition filing fee | $275, effective January 1, 2026 (rising to $300 on 1/1/2027 and $325 on 1/1/2028 under a statutory phase-in), for probate estates/conservatorships/guardianships, fixed by the general court-clerk fee statute rather than Title 34 itself. | Tenn. Code Ann. § 8-21-401(c)(1) |
| Bond | Required, in a penal sum equal to the fair market value of all personal property plus one year’s anticipated income from all managed property; renewed annually, court may adjust the amount. Waivable when the ward’s non-real-estate property does not exceed $10,000. The statute does not address who bears the bond premium. | Tenn. Code Ann. § 34-1-105 |
| Guardian ad litem and attorney fees | Not published: could not verify against statutory text. § 34-1-109 affirmatively bars a fiduciary from paying guardian ad litem/attorney fees “without specific court approval,” confirming fees are set case-by-case rather than by a statutory schedule. | |
| Periodic accounting or report | Annual: No graduated fee schedule tied to estate value was found. § 34-1-109 requires “annual and final accountings”; the filing-fee statute sets only the flat initial-proceeding fee reported above. | Tenn. Code Ann. § 34-1-109 |
What the proceeding is called here. Conservatorship, Tenn. Code Ann. Title 34, Chapter 1 and Chapter 3.
The filing fee
$275, effective January 1, 2026 (rising to $300 on 1/1/2027 and $325 on 1/1/2028 under a statutory phase-in), for probate estates/conservatorships/guardianships, fixed by the general court-clerk fee statute rather than Title 34 itself.
The bond
Required, in a penal sum equal to the fair market value of all personal property plus one year’s anticipated income from all managed property; renewed annually, court may adjust the amount. Waivable when the ward’s non-real-estate property does not exceed $10,000. The statute does not address who bears the bond premium.
Guardian ad litem and attorney fees
Not published here. Not published: could not verify against statutory text. § 34-1-109 affirmatively bars a fiduciary from paying guardian ad litem/attorney fees “without specific court approval,” confirming fees are set case-by-case rather than by a statutory schedule.
How often you have to account
Annual. 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.
No graduated fee schedule tied to estate value was found. § 34-1-109 requires “annual and final accountings”; the filing-fee statute sets only the flat initial-proceeding fee reported above.
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
Tennessee’s official Lexis-hosted Code portal was not reachable via a working direct-section URL this session. All quotes verified via codes.findlaw.com, a SECONDARY mirror, flagged accordingly.
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 | https://codes.findlaw.com/tn/title-8-public-officers-and-employees/tn-code-sect-8-21-401/ | statute | 2026-09 |
| Bond | https://codes.findlaw.com/tn/title-34-guardianship/tn-code-sect-34-1-105/ | statute | 2026-09 |
| Accounting | https://codes.findlaw.com/tn/title-34-guardianship/tn-code-sect-34-1-109/ | statute | 2026-09 |
Also for Tennessee: Tennessee Small Estate Affidavit · Tennessee Advance Directive Requirements · How Much Does a Will Cost in Tennessee?.
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 September 3, 2026.