Updated August 14, 2026. Quick answer: Ohio fixes the petition filing fee at $35 by statute, and the periodic accounting is not annual — it is biennial (both the report and the account). Everything on this page is quoted from Ohio’s own statutory text where it exists, and where Ohio 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 Ohio fixes by statute
| Item | What the text says | Where it says it |
|---|---|---|
| Petition filing fee | $35.00 to apply for appointment of a guardian or conservator, under the statewide probate-court fee schedule. The court may additionally charge the applicant or the estate for the cost of the statutory investigation. | Ohio Rev. Code §2101.16(A)(34); §2101.16(B)(1) |
| Bond | Bond mandatory before letters issue, with a statutory floor: the penal sum is fixed by the court but ‘in no event less than double the probable value of the personal property’ (and of the annual rents/income) — unless otherwise provided by law, court order, or local rule. | Ohio Rev. Code §2109.04(A)(1) |
| Guardian ad litem and attorney fees | Not published here. Guardian ad litem and attorney fees is not stated on this page because 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://codes.ohio.gov/ohio-revised-code/section-2111.02. | — |
| Periodic accounting or report | Biennial, not annual. Guardian’s report due 2 years after letters issue and biennially thereafter; guardian/conservator account rendered at least once every 2 years. Fees: $5.00 for filing and review of a guardian’s report; $12.00 for an account, in addition to advertising charges (plus $1.00 minimum for waivers/proof of notice of hearing on account, per page). | Ohio Rev. Code §2111.49(A)(1); §2109.302(A); §2101.16(A)(74); §2101.16(A)(1) |
What the proceeding is called here. Guardianship of an incompetent (R.C. ch. 2111), probate court.
The filing fee
$35.00 to apply for appointment of a guardian or conservator, under the statewide probate-court fee schedule. The court may additionally charge the applicant or the estate for the cost of the statutory investigation.
Fiduciary, including an assignee or trustee of an insolvent debtor or any guardian or conservator accountable to the probate court, appointment of . . . $35.00
Except as provided in section 2101.164 of the Revised Code, the fees enumerated in this division shall be charged and collected…and shall be in full for all services rendered
Read at statute source on 2026-08-11: Ohio Rev. Code §2101.16(A)(34); §2101.16(B)(1).
The bond
Bond mandatory before letters issue, with a statutory floor: the penal sum is fixed by the court but ‘in no event less than double the probable value of the personal property’ (and of the annual rents/income) — unless otherwise provided by law, court order, or local rule.
Unless otherwise provided by law, order, or local rule, every fiduciary, prior to the issuance of the fiduciary’s letters as provided by section 2109.02 of the Revised Code, shall file in the probate court in which the letters are to be issued a bond with a penal sum in an amount that is fixed by the court, but in no event less than double the probable value of the personal property and of the annual real property rentals that will come into the possession or under the control of the person as a fiduciary.
Read at statute source on 2026-08-11: Ohio Rev. Code §2109.04(A)(1).
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. Ohio 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 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://codes.ohio.gov/ohio-revised-code/section-2111.02.
How often you have to account
Not annual: Biennial (both the report and the account). This is the correction most published guidance gets wrong, because it generalises one state’s cadence to all of them. Your own appointing court can order more often than the statutory minimum, and the document that governs you is your order.
Biennial, not annual. Guardian’s report due 2 years after letters issue and biennially thereafter; guardian/conservator account rendered at least once every 2 years. Fees: $5.00 for filing and review of a guardian’s report; $12.00 for an account, in addition to advertising charges (plus $1.00 minimum for waivers/proof of notice of hearing on account, per page).
(A)(1) Subject to division (A)(3) of this section, the guardian of an incompetent person shall file a guardian’s report with the court two years after the date of the issuance of the guardian’s letters of appointment and biennially after that time, or at any other time upon the motion or a rule of the probate court.
(A) Every guardian or conservator shall render an account of the administration of the ward’s estate at least once in each two years.
Read at statute source on 2026-08-11: Ohio Rev. Code §2111.49(A)(1); §2109.302(A); §2101.16(A)(74); §2101.16(A)(1).
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 | Ohio Rev. Code §2101.16(A)(34); §2101.16(B)(1) | statute | 2026-08-11 |
| Bond | Ohio Rev. Code §2109.04(A)(1) | statute | 2026-08-11 |
| Periodic accounting or report | Ohio Rev. Code §2111.49(A)(1); §2109.302(A); §2101.16(A)(74); §2101.16(A)(1) | 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.