Updated August 14, 2026. Quick answer: Oklahoma fixes the base petition filing fee at $135 by statute, with further statutory assessments added to the same filing, and the periodic accounting is annual, and priced. Everything on this page is quoted from the jurisdiction’s own statute or an official court schedule, and where Oklahoma 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.
Jump to: the document that avoids this proceeding entirely
The same question in other states: What Adult Guardianship Costs in Hawaii, What Adult Guardianship Costs in Illinois and What Adult Guardianship Costs in Indiana.
What Oklahoma fixes by statute
| Item | What the text says | Where it says it |
|---|---|---|
| Petition filing fee | $135.00 base fee. In any civil case filed in a district court the court clerk collects, at the time of filing, flat fees ‘none of which shall ever be refundable, and WHICH SHALL BE THE ONLY CHARGE FOR COURT COSTS, except as is otherwise specifically provided for by law’: Probate and guardianship, $135.00, to which the same section adds $6.00 (Law Library Fund), $25.00 (Court Information System Revolving Fund), $10.00 (court-appointed special advocates), $2.00 and, until November 1, 2027, $10.00 (Court Clerk’s Records Management and Preservation Fund), and a county may add up to $10.00 for courthouse security. The same schedule charges $33.00 for an annual guardianship report and $43.00 for any proceeding for the sale or lease of real or personal property or a mineral interest in probate or guardianship. | 28 O.S. s.152(A)(3), (4), (5); s.152(B)-(G) |
| Bond | Split by role. Before an order appointing a guardian of the person takes effect and before letters issue, ‘the court MAY require’ a bond with sufficient sureties in such penal sum as the court orders. Before an order appointing a guardian of a minor or a guardian/limited guardian of the property of an incapacitated or partially incapacitated person takes effect, the court shall require a bond in an amount not less than the value of intangible personal property as alleged in the petition or otherwise determined by the court at the hearing on the petition; but on a finding that the ward’s anticipated annual income for one year plus the value of the ward’s personal property is less than $40,000, the court may order that a bond is not necessary. | 30 O.S. s.4-201(A)-(B) |
| Guardian ad litem and attorney fees | ‘Every guardian must be allowed the amount of his reasonable expenses in the execution of his trust, and he must also have such compensation for his services as the court in which his accounts are settled deems just and reasonable.’ but: ‘To the extent that the services of a guardian or limited guardian of the property are for the COLLECTION OF INCOME of the ward, compensation for such services SHALL NOT EXCEED SEVEN AND ONE-HALF PERCENT (7 1/2%) of the income so collected’ – where ‘income’ means funds received and accounted for on the ward’s behalf other than from sales of the ward’s property, plus net sale proceeds in excess of the property’s last-determined value. All compensation and reimbursement requires prior court approval. Attorneys and guardians ad litem are entitled to reasonable compensation, paid from the ward’s financial resources unless the court determines that payment would substantially impede the ward from meeting essential physical health or safety needs and substantially impair the ward’s financial resources, in which case they are paid from the court fund (30 O.S. s.4-403(A)-(C)). | 30 O.S. s.4-401(A)-(C); s.4-403(A)-(C); s.4-303(B)(1)(b) |
| Periodic accounting or report | Annual, and priced. ‘Except as otherwise provided by subsection B of this section, a guardian or limited guardian of the property shall, upon the expiration of a year from the time of appointment, and at least annually thereafter, present accounts to the court for settlement and allowance as part of the guardianship report as required by Section 4-306 of this title.’ Unless the court directs otherwise, the annual accounting and plan do not apply where the ward’s assets other than a homestead are worth less than $40,000 with a bond posted, or less than $10,000 regardless of bond, and the guardian is the ward’s spouse or a relative within the fourth degree of consanguinity (30 O.S. s.4-303(B)(3)). The guardian must also report changes to inventoried property and state the compensation requested, and must detail any significant change in the ward’s physical or mental condition or financial resources. The annual guardianship report costs $33.00 (28 O.S. s.152(A)(4)). | 30 O.S. s.4-303(A)-(B); s.4-305; 28 O.S. s.152(A)(4) |
What the proceeding is called here. Guardian, limited guardian and special guardian of the person and/or the property under the Oklahoma Guardianship and Conservatorship Act, 30 O.S.
The filing fee
$135.00 base fee. In any civil case filed in a district court the court clerk collects, at the time of filing, flat fees ‘none of which shall ever be refundable, and WHICH SHALL BE THE ONLY CHARGE FOR COURT COSTS, except as is otherwise specifically provided for by law’: Probate and guardianship, $135.00, to which the same section adds $6.00 (Law Library Fund), $25.00 (Court Information System Revolving Fund), $10.00 (court-appointed special advocates), $2.00 and, until November 1, 2027, $10.00 (Court Clerk’s Records Management and Preservation Fund), and a county may add up to $10.00 for courthouse security. The same schedule charges $33.00 for an annual guardianship report and $43.00 for any proceeding for the sale or lease of real or personal property or a mineral interest in probate or guardianship.
Read at statute source on 2026-08-12: 28 O.S. s.152(A)(3), (4), (5); s.152(B)-(G).
The bond
Split by role. Before an order appointing a guardian of the person takes effect and before letters issue, ‘the court MAY require’ a bond with sufficient sureties in such penal sum as the court orders. Before an order appointing a guardian of a minor or a guardian/limited guardian of the property of an incapacitated or partially incapacitated person takes effect, the court shall require a bond in an amount not less than the value of intangible personal property as alleged in the petition or otherwise determined by the court at the hearing on the petition; but on a finding that the ward’s anticipated annual income for one year plus the value of the ward’s personal property is less than $40,000, the court may order that a bond is not necessary.
Read at statute source on 2026-08-12: 30 O.S. s.4-201(A)-(B).
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. Oklahoma 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
‘Every guardian must be allowed the amount of his reasonable expenses in the execution of his trust, and he must also have such compensation for his services as the court in which his accounts are settled deems just and reasonable.’ but: ‘To the extent that the services of a guardian or limited guardian of the property are for the COLLECTION OF INCOME of the ward, compensation for such services SHALL NOT EXCEED SEVEN AND ONE-HALF PERCENT (7 1/2%) of the income so collected’ – where ‘income’ means funds received and accounted for on the ward’s behalf other than from sales of the ward’s property, plus net sale proceeds in excess of the property’s last-determined value. All compensation and reimbursement requires prior court approval.
Read at statute source on 2026-08-12: 30 O.S. s.4-401(A)-(C); s.4-403(A)-(C); s.4-303(B)(1)(b).
How often you have to account
Annual, and priced. 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, and priced. ‘Except as otherwise provided by subsection B of this section, a guardian or limited guardian of the property shall, upon the expiration of a year from the time of appointment, and at least annually thereafter, present accounts to the court for settlement and allowance as part of the guardianship report as required by Section 4-306 of this title.’ Unless the court directs otherwise, the annual accounting and plan do not apply where the ward’s assets other than a homestead are worth less than $40,000 with a bond posted, or less than $10,000 regardless of bond, and the guardian is the ward’s spouse or a relative within the fourth degree of consanguinity (30 O.S. s.4-303(B)(3)). The guardian must also report changes to inventoried property and state the compensation requested, and must detail any significant change in the ward’s physical or mental condition or financial resources. The annual guardianship report costs $33.00 (28 O.S. s.152(A)(4)).
Read at statute source on 2026-08-12: 30 O.S. s.4-303(A)-(B); s.4-305; 28 O.S. s.152(A)(4).
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 | 28 O.S. s.152(A)(3), (4), (5); s.152(B)-(G) | statute | 2026-08-12 |
| Bond | 30 O.S. s.4-201(A)-(B) | statute | 2026-08-12 |
| Guardian ad litem and attorney fees | 30 O.S. s.4-401(A)-(C); s.4-403(A)-(C); s.4-303(B)(1)(b) | statute | 2026-08-12 |
| Periodic accounting or report | 30 O.S. s.4-303(A)-(B); s.4-305; 28 O.S. s.152(A)(4) | 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.