Arizona Guardianship Rules and Terminology Explained

We have talked and written about Arizona guardianship proceedings before. We still encounter a lot of confusion about the rules — and even the language. One thing that often confuses people: the use of “guardianship”, “conservatorship” and other similar terms. Unfortunately, states do not all use the same terms in the same way. In Arizona, “guardianship” means the authority a court can grant to one person to make personal, medical and placement decisions for another person. In Arizona, “conservatorship” refers to the court-granted authority over financial matters. Join us for this week’s podcast episode while we explain about Arizona guardianship. Note that what we describe may not apply in other states. California and Connecticut, for instance, use “conservatorship” to mean what we call guardianship. Other states have guardianship of the person or estate — and that’s not how we use the terms.