Updated August 14, 2026. Quick answer: Virginia’s petition filing fee could not be established from primary text, and the periodic accounting is annual (first report due within 6 months of qualification, covering the first 4 months). Everything on this page is quoted from Virginia’s own statutory text where it exists, and where Virginia 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 Virginia fixes by statute
| Item | What the text says | Where it says it |
|---|---|---|
| Petition filing fee | Not published here. Petition filing fee 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://law.lis.virginia.gov/vacodefull/title17.1/chapter2/. | — |
| Bond | A guardian or conservator may qualify by giving bond without surety where the assets do not exceed $25,000 (the threshold is $35,000 for other fiduciaries). A fiduciary serving jointly with a bank or trust company that is itself exempt from surety under §6.2-1003 is, unless the court directs otherwise, also exempt. | Va. Code §64.2-1411(A), (B) |
| 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://law.lis.virginia.gov/vacode/title64.2/chapter20/section64.2-2003/. | — |
| Periodic accounting or report | An annual report is required, and Virginia is unusual in where it goes: the guardian files with the local department of social services for the jurisdiction where the incapacitated person then resides, not directly with the court; the local department then files a copy with the circuit court clerk within 60 days. The first report is due within six months of qualification and covers the first four months; each later report is due within four months after the end of the 12-month period. | Va. Code §64.2-2020 |
What the proceeding is called here. Guardian and/or conservator of an incapacitated person (Va. Code tit. 64.2, ch. 20), circuit court.
The filing fee
Not published here. The petition filing fee 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://law.lis.virginia.gov/vacodefull/title17.1/chapter2/.
The bond
A guardian or conservator may qualify by giving bond without surety where the assets do not exceed $25,000 (the threshold is $35,000 for other fiduciaries). A fiduciary serving jointly with a bank or trust company that is itself exempt from surety under §6.2-1003 is, unless the court directs otherwise, also exempt.
When fiduciary may qualify without security; requirements for issuance of certificates of qualification; payments
Read at statute source on 2026-08-11: Va. Code §64.2-1411(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. Virginia 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://law.lis.virginia.gov/vacode/title64.2/chapter20/section64.2-2003/.
How often you have to account
Annual (first report due within 6 months of qualification, covering the first 4 months). 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.
An annual report is required, and Virginia is unusual in where it goes: the guardian files with the local department of social services for the jurisdiction where the incapacitated person then resides, not directly with the court; the local department then files a copy with the circuit court clerk within 60 days. The first report is due within six months of qualification and covers the first four months; each later report is due within four months after the end of the 12-month period.
A. Within six months from the date of qualification, a guardian appointed pursuant to § 64.2-2009 shall file an initial annual report reflecting the first four months of guardianship since qualification with the local department of social services for the jurisdiction where the incapacitated person then resides. After such initial annual report has been filed, the second and subsequent annual reports for each succeeding 12-month period shall be due within four months from the last day of the 12-month period covered by the previous annual report. The annual report shall be on a form prepared by the Office of the Executive Secretary of the Supreme Court and shall be accompanied by a filing fee of $5. … The local department shall retain the fee in the jurisdiction where the fee is collected for use in the provision of services to adults in need of protection. Within 60 days of receipt of the annual report, the local department shall file a copy of the annual report with the clerk of the circuit court that appointed the guardian, to be placed with the court papers pertaining to the guardianship case.
Read at statute source on 2026-08-11: Va. Code §64.2-2020.
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, 2 could not be: petition filing fee, 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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Bond | Va. Code §64.2-1411(A), (B) | statute | 2026-08-11 |
| Periodic accounting or report | Va. Code §64.2-2020 | 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.