Updated August 14, 2026. Quick answer: Washington fixes the petition filing fee at $200 by statute, and the periodic accounting is not annual — it is by a date established by the court (not fixed as annual by the statute text read). Everything on this page is quoted from Washington’s own statutory text where it exists, and where Washington 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 Washington fixes by statute
| Item | What the text says | Where it says it |
|---|---|---|
| Petition filing fee | $200 payable at the time of filing the first document in probate proceedings. | RCW 36.18.020(2)(f) |
| Bond | The court shall require a conservator to furnish a bond with a surety the court specifies, or require a verified receipt, conditioned on faithful discharge of all duties. The court may waive the requirement only on a finding that a bond or other verified receipt is not necessary to protect the interests of the individual subject to conservatorship. | RCW 11.130.445(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://app.leg.wa.gov/RCW/default.aspx?cite=11.130.275. | — |
| Periodic accounting or report | A guardian for an adult shall file a report with the court by the date the court establishes, covering the condition of the adult and accounting for funds and other property in the guardian’s possession or control. Separately, a guardian must file a care plan within 90 days of appointment. | RCW 11.130.345(1); RCW 11.130.340(1) |
What the proceeding is called here. Guardianship of an adult and/or conservatorship (RCW 11.130, the Uniform Guardianship, Conservatorship, and Other Protective Arrangements Act, effective 2022-01-01), superior court. Washington replaced its former Title 11.88/11.92 guardianship scheme — citations to those chapters are to repealed law.
The filing fee
$200 payable at the time of filing the first document in probate proceedings.
(f) In probate proceedings, the party instituting such proceedings, shall pay at the time of filing the first document therein, a fee of $200.
Read at statute source on 2026-08-11: RCW 36.18.020(2)(f).
The bond
The court shall require a conservator to furnish a bond with a surety the court specifies, or require a verified receipt, conditioned on faithful discharge of all duties. The court may waive the requirement only on a finding that a bond or other verified receipt is not necessary to protect the interests of the individual subject to conservatorship.
Read at statute source on 2026-08-11: RCW 11.130.445(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. Washington 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://app.leg.wa.gov/RCW/default.aspx?cite=11.130.275.
How often you have to account
Not annual: By a date established by the court (not fixed as annual by the statute text read). 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.
A guardian for an adult shall file a report with the court by the date the court establishes, covering the condition of the adult and accounting for funds and other property in the guardian’s possession or control. Separately, a guardian must file a care plan within 90 days of appointment.
(1) A guardian for an adult shall file with the court by the date established by the court a report in a record regarding the condition of the adult and accounting for funds and other property in the guardian’s possession or subject to the guardian’s control.
Read at statute source on 2026-08-11: RCW 11.130.345(1); RCW 11.130.340(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 | RCW 36.18.020(2)(f) | statute | 2026-08-11 |
| Bond | RCW 11.130.445(1) | statute | 2026-08-11 |
| Periodic accounting or report | RCW 11.130.345(1); RCW 11.130.340(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.