You May Not Need a Guardianship

Clients often come to us because they believe they need a guardianship. Perhaps their spouse has ended up in assisted living or a nursing home. Maybe their developmentally disabled child just turned 17 and they have been told they should get the process underway. Or a parent has become increasingly confused and a dementia diagnosis seems inevitable.

Here’s a common thread for those sessions: we usually begin by challenging whether they actually need a guardianship. Not whether they could prevail, but whether there is any good reason to start the legal proceedings at all.

Sometimes you genuinely do need to pursue a guardianship. And if so (and if your family member is living in Arizona) we’re usually happy to help. But, though it works against our own financial interest, we tend to be slow to encourage people to initiate the guardianship process.

Why do we think you may not need a guardianship? For several reasons:

1. You might have the authority to make medical and placement decisions under Arizona’s “surrogacy” law.
2. Perhaps there’s a health care power of attorney — or maybe the principal could sign one. Even if they have a disability.
3. There are some kinds of things that family often want to do that simply are not within the authority of a guardian. In other words, it might not help.

Of course there’s more. Join us for this podcast episode and we’ll explain our view.