Updated August 14, 2026. Quick answer: North Carolina’s petition filing fee is a formula rather than a flat number, and the periodic accounting is annual. Everything on this page is quoted from the jurisdiction’s own statute or an official court schedule, and where North Carolina 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 North Carolina fixes by statute
| Item | What the text says | Where it says it |
|---|---|---|
| Petition filing fee | Ad valorem, not flat: $106 for support of the General Court of Justice plus 40 cents per $100 (or major fraction) of the gross estate, capped at $6,000 — plus a $10 facilities fee and a $4 telecommunications fee. Minimum fee per filing $15. | N.C. Gen. Stat. §7A-307(a)(1), (1a), (2) |
| Bond | A general guardian or guardian of the estate may not receive the ward’s property until sufficient surety, approved by the clerk, has been given. If the guardian is a nonresident of North Carolina and the property received exceeds $1,000, the surety must be a bond. | N.C. Gen. Stat. §35A-1230 |
| Guardian ad litem and attorney fees | A guardian ad litem is appointed as of right on the filing of the petition unless the respondent retains counsel, in which case the GAL may be discharged. Costs including reasonable fees and expenses of counsel are taxed against any party or apportioned in the court’s discretion, with a thumb on the scale toward the respondent where the costs benefited them, and against the petitioner where the clerk finds the petition lacked reasonable grounds. | N.C. Gen. Stat. §35A-1107(a); §35A-1116(a) |
| Periodic accounting or report | Annual inventory and account required for as long as any of the estate remains in the guardian’s control. The ad valorem fee recurs: where an account or report discloses additional estate value, the 40¢-per-$100 fee is computed on that additional value, with a $15 minimum per filing. | N.C. Gen. Stat. §35A-1264; §7A-307(a)(2) |
What the proceeding is called here. Guardianship of an incompetent person (G.S. ch. 35A), before the clerk of superior court sitting as judge of probate.
The filing fee
Ad valorem, not flat: $106 for support of the General Court of Justice plus 40 cents per $100 (or major fraction) of the gross estate, capped at $6,000 — plus a $10 facilities fee and a $4 telecommunications fee. Minimum fee per filing $15.
It is not one number. The statute states it as: $106 + 0.4% of the gross estate, capped at $6,000, plus $10 (facilities) + $4 (technology)
For support of the General Court of Justice, the sum of one hundred six dollars ($106.00), plus an additional forty cents (40¢) per one hundred dollars ($100.00), or major fraction thereof, of the gross estate, not to exceed six thousand dollars ($6,000).
Read at statute source on 2026-08-11: N.C. Gen. Stat. §7A-307(a)(1), (1a), (2).
The bond
A general guardian or guardian of the estate may not receive the ward’s property until sufficient surety, approved by the clerk, has been given. If the guardian is a nonresident of North Carolina and the property received exceeds $1,000, the surety must be a bond.
Read at statute source on 2026-08-11: N.C. Gen. Stat. §35A-1230.
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. North Carolina 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
A guardian ad litem is appointed as of right on the filing of the petition unless the respondent retains counsel, in which case the GAL may be discharged. Costs including reasonable fees and expenses of counsel are taxed against any party or apportioned in the court’s discretion, with a thumb on the scale toward the respondent where the costs benefited them, and against the petitioner where the clerk finds the petition lacked reasonable grounds.
Upon filing of the petition, an attorney shall be appointed as guardian ad litem to represent the respondent unless the respondent retains counsel, in which event the guardian ad litem may be discharged.
If the clerk finds that the petitioner did not have reasonable grounds to bring the proceeding, costs shall be taxed to the petitioner.
Read at statute source on 2026-08-11: N.C. Gen. Stat. §35A-1107(a); §35A-1116(a).
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.
Annual inventory and account required for as long as any of the estate remains in the guardian’s control. The ad valorem fee recurs: where an account or report discloses additional estate value, the 40¢-per-$100 fee is computed on that additional value, with a $15 minimum per filing.
Unless the time for filing the annual account has been extended by the clerk, every guardian shall, for so long as any of the estate remains in the guardian’s control, file annually in the office of the clerk an inventory and account, under oath, of the amount of property the guardian received or invested, including the manner and nature of such investment, and all receipts and disbursements for the past year in the form of debit and credit.
If additional gross estate, including income, comes into the hands of the fiduciary after the filing of the inventory, the fee for such additional value shall be computed from the information reported in the account or report disclosing such additional value. For each filing the minimum fee shall be fifteen dollars ($15.00).
Read at statute source on 2026-08-11: N.C. Gen. Stat. §35A-1264; §7A-307(a)(2).
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 | N.C. Gen. Stat. §7A-307(a)(1), (1a), (2) | statute | 2026-08-11 |
| Bond | N.C. Gen. Stat. §35A-1230 | statute | 2026-08-11 |
| Guardian ad litem and attorney fees | N.C. Gen. Stat. §35A-1107(a); §35A-1116(a) | statute | 2026-08-11 |
| Periodic accounting or report | N.C. Gen. Stat. §35A-1264; §7A-307(a)(2) | statute | 2026-08-11 |
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.