Updated September 3, 2026. Quick answer: Not a single fixed statutory figure: circuit clerks set the base probate filing fee locally within maximum caps tiered by county population (top schedule not to exceed $371 in counties of 3,000,000+ population, $321 elsewhere). A flat statewide $100 “Guardianship and Advocacy operations fee” is also assessed on probate case filings. The periodic accounting is annual. Everything on this page is quoted from Illinois’s own statutory text where it exists, and where Illinois 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 Illinois fixes by statute
| Item | What the text says | Where it says it |
|---|---|---|
| Petition filing fee | Not a single fixed statutory figure: circuit clerks set the base probate filing fee locally within maximum caps tiered by county population (top schedule not to exceed $371 in counties of 3,000,000+ population, $321 elsewhere). A flat statewide $100 “Guardianship and Advocacy operations fee” is also assessed on probate case filings. | 705 ILCS 105/27.1b; 705 ILCS 105/27.3f |
| Bond | Required for a guardian of the estate; waivable for a guardian of the person or standby guardian. Penal sum: not less than double the value of the personal estate if secured by individual sureties, or not less than 1.5 times the value if secured by a surety company, with additional bond possible where real estate is involved. The statute does not address who bears the premium. | 755 ILCS 5/12-2; 755 ILCS 5/12-5 |
| Guardian ad litem and attorney fees | Not published: could not verify a statutory dollar figure. 755 ILCS 5/11a-10 provides only that “the court may allow the guardian ad litem reasonable compensation” and may allow counsel reasonable compensation, with fee allocation entirely discretionary. | |
| Periodic accounting or report | Annual: No graduated dollar-tiered schedule exists: filings are exempted from fees outright for guardianships of disabled adults under Article XIa. The underlying accounting duty (verified account due within 60 days after 12 months from issuance of letters) comes from the general probate-representative accounting statute. | 755 ILCS 5/24-1; fee exemption at 705 ILCS 105/27.1b |
What the proceeding is called here. Guardians for Adults with Disabilities, 755 ILCS 5/11a-1 et seq. (Probate Act of 1975, Article XIa).
The filing fee
Not a single fixed statutory figure: circuit clerks set the base probate filing fee locally within maximum caps tiered by county population (top schedule not to exceed $371 in counties of 3,000,000+ population, $321 elsewhere). A flat statewide $100 “Guardianship and Advocacy operations fee” is also assessed on probate case filings.
The bond
Required for a guardian of the estate; waivable for a guardian of the person or standby guardian. Penal sum: not less than double the value of the personal estate if secured by individual sureties, or not less than 1.5 times the value if secured by a surety company, with additional bond possible where real estate is involved. The statute does not address who bears the premium.
Guardian ad litem and attorney fees
Not published here. Not published: could not verify a statutory dollar figure. 755 ILCS 5/11a-10 provides only that “the court may allow the guardian ad litem reasonable compensation” and may allow counsel reasonable compensation, with fee allocation entirely discretionary.
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 dollar-tiered schedule exists: filings are exempted from fees outright for guardianships of disabled adults under Article XIa. The underlying accounting duty (verified account due within 60 days after 12 months from issuance of letters) comes from the general probate-representative accounting statute.
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 Illinois citations were fetched directly from ilga.gov, the Illinois General Assembly’s own official statute site: a true primary source, not a secondary mirror.
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://www.ilga.gov/documents/legislation/ilcs/documents/070501050K27.1b.htm | statute | 2026-09 |
| Bond | https://www.ilga.gov/documents/legislation/ilcs/documents/075500050K11a-10.htm | statute | 2026-09 |
| Accounting | https://www.ilga.gov/documents/legislation/ilcs/documents/075500050K12-2.htm | statute | 2026-09 |
Also for Illinois: Illinois Small Estate Affidavit.
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.