Updated August 14, 2026. Quick answer: Missouri’s petition filing fee is a formula rather than a flat number, and the periodic accounting is annually. Everything on this page is quoted from the jurisdiction’s own statute or an official court schedule, and where Missouri 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 Missouri fixes by statute
| Item | What the text says | Where it says it |
|---|---|---|
| Petition filing fee | No dollar amount is set in the guardianship chapter; s.483.580.1 charges probate-division court costs ‘in such amounts as are determined pursuant to sections 488.010 to 488.020’. What the statutes do fix is who pays: costs of an incapacity/disability proceeding are paid from the person’s estate if they are found incapacitated or disabled, by the county if the estate is insufficient, and by the petitioner if the person is found not to be incapacitated or disabled (unless the petitioner is a public employee acting officially, in which case the county pays). The court must accept and act on a petition as to an indigent respondent without requiring A filing fee, taxing costs after ruling. | Mo. Rev. Stat. ss.475.085.1-.2, 483.580.1-.2 |
| Bond | Every conservator of the estate of a minor or disabled person must, before entering upon the duties of office, execute and file a court-approved bond with sufficient surety in an amount fixed by the court – and the bond is expressly ‘PROCURED AT THE EXPENSE OF THE ESTATE’. ss.473.157 to 473.217 (personal-representative bonds) apply, except s.473.157.1 and s.473.160.1. | Mo. Rev. Stat. s.475.100 |
| Guardian ad litem and attorney fees | A guardian or conservator is allowed such compensation as the court deems just and reasonable, with additional compensation for necessary services as attorney and for other necessary services not required of a guardian or conservator, plus necessary expenses including reasonable attorney fees where employing an attorney was necessary. All amounts are fixed by the court and may be allowed at any annual or final accounting; interim allowances may be applied for. If the court finds the guardian or conservator failed to discharge their duties in any respect it may deny compensation entirely or reduce it, and it ‘may consider ties of blood, marriage or adoption’. | Mo. Rev. Stat. s.475.265 |
| Periodic accounting or report | Every conservator files a settlement of accounts with the court annually (or more often if required), at a time fixed by the court within 60 days after the anniversary of appointment, conforming to s.473.543. Where the conservatorship estate meets the Ch. 208 indigency standards, is under another fiduciary’s control (including a Social Security representative payee or a Veterans Affairs fiduciary), or the assets are in restricted custody, the court may waive the s.473.543 form and require only a short statement of receipts, disbursements, total on hand, and depositary. | Mo. Rev. Stat. s.475.270.1-.3 |
What the proceeding is called here. Guardian (person) and conservator (estate) of a minor or incapacitated/disabled person, Ch. 475.
The filing fee
No dollar amount is set in the guardianship chapter; s.483.580.1 charges probate-division court costs ‘in such amounts as are determined pursuant to sections 488.010 to 488.020’. What the statutes do fix is who pays: costs of an incapacity/disability proceeding are paid from the person’s estate if they are found incapacitated or disabled, by the county if the estate is insufficient, and by the petitioner if the person is found not to be incapacitated or disabled (unless the petitioner is a public employee acting officially, in which case the county pays). The court must accept and act on a petition as to an indigent respondent without requiring A filing fee, taxing costs after ruling.
It is not one number. The statute states it as: Amount set under Mo. Rev. Stat. Ss.488.010-488.020; allocation fixed by s.475.085
Read at statute source on 2026-08-12: Mo. Rev. Stat. ss.475.085.1-.2, 483.580.1-.2.
The bond
Every conservator of the estate of a minor or disabled person must, before entering upon the duties of office, execute and file a court-approved bond with sufficient surety in an amount fixed by the court – and the bond is expressly ‘PROCURED AT THE EXPENSE OF THE ESTATE’. ss.473.157 to 473.217 (personal-representative bonds) apply, except s.473.157.1 and s.473.160.1.
Every conservator of the estate of a minor or disabled person, before entering upon the duties of his office, shall execute and file a bond, approved by the court, procured at the expense of the estate with sufficient surety in an amount fixed by the court. Sections 473.157 to 473.217, relating to the bonds of personal representatives, except subsection 1 of section 473.157 and subsection 1 of section 473.160, are applicable to the bonds of conservators.
Read at statute source on 2026-08-12: Mo. Rev. Stat. s.475.100.
Who pays the premium. A surety bond carries a recurring premium, and it is usually the largest ongoing cost of a guardianship of the estate. Missouri is one of the few jurisdictions whose own text answers who bears it.
That is a rule about who pays, not a published price. No authority publishes what a bond actually costs, because a surety prices it against the estate.
Guardian ad litem and attorney fees
A guardian or conservator is allowed such compensation as the court deems just and reasonable, with additional compensation for necessary services as attorney and for other necessary services not required of a guardian or conservator, plus necessary expenses including reasonable attorney fees where employing an attorney was necessary. All amounts are fixed by the court and may be allowed at any annual or final accounting; interim allowances may be applied for. If the court finds the guardian or conservator failed to discharge their duties in any respect it may deny compensation entirely or reduce it, and it ‘may consider ties of blood, marriage or adoption’.
Read at statute source on 2026-08-12: Mo. Rev. Stat. s.475.265.
How often you have to account
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.
Every conservator files a settlement of accounts with the court annually (or more often if required), at a time fixed by the court within 60 days after the anniversary of appointment, conforming to s.473.543. Where the conservatorship estate meets the Ch. 208 indigency standards, is under another fiduciary’s control (including a Social Security representative payee or a Veterans Affairs fiduciary), or the assets are in restricted custody, the court may waive the s.473.543 form and require only a short statement of receipts, disbursements, total on hand, and depositary.
Read at statute source on 2026-08-12: Mo. Rev. Stat. s.475.270.1-.3.
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 | Mo. Rev. Stat. ss.475.085.1-.2, 483.580.1-.2 | statute | 2026-08-12 |
| Bond | Mo. Rev. Stat. s.475.100 | statute | 2026-08-12 |
| Guardian ad litem and attorney fees | Mo. Rev. Stat. s.475.265 | statute | 2026-08-12 |
| Periodic accounting or report | Mo. Rev. Stat. s.475.270.1-.3 | 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.