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Applying for Adult Guardianship: Full vs. Limited Guardianship

How adult guardianship works when someone can no longer fully manage their own affairs, from choosing the right type to registering the outcome.

  1. Understand the difference between full and limited guardianship

    Full guardianship is designed for someone who has persistently and substantially lost the capacity to handle their own affairs, due to illness, disability, or age, while limited guardianship fits someone with a lesser degree of impairment -- and the two carry very different scopes of authority for the guardian.

  2. Check who is legally allowed to apply

    Typically, the person themselves, a spouse, close relatives within a defined degree, a public prosecutor, or a local government official can petition a family court to begin the guardianship process.

  3. Prepare the required documents

    You'll generally need a guardianship petition, civil registry certificates for both the petitioner and the person needing a guardian, a medical opinion (which may require a psychiatric evaluation), and a list of the person's assets.

  4. Go through the family court's review process

    The court typically interviews the person concerned, may order a psychiatric evaluation, and investigates candidates for guardian before deciding whether to open guardianship and who should serve -- the process commonly takes several months.

  5. Confirm the outcome through the guardianship registry

    Once the court's decision is final, it's recorded in a separate guardianship registry -- distinct from the general family registry -- and a guardianship registry certificate can afterward be used to prove the guardianship's terms.

Guardianship is scaled to the actual level of need

The distinction between full and limited guardianship exists because impairment isn't all-or-nothing -- someone who needs help with major financial decisions but can still handle daily life shouldn't lose all legal autonomy, which is exactly the gap limited guardianship is designed to fill.

The court's process is slow on purpose

Placing someone under guardianship takes away a meaningful degree of legal independence, so family courts generally move deliberately -- interviewing the person directly, ordering medical evaluation, and vetting the proposed guardian -- rather than approving a petition quickly.

Frequently Asked Questions

Can a family member become the legal guardian automatically just by filing the petition?

No -- the family court decides who serves as guardian after reviewing the case, and it doesn't have to be the person who filed the petition. The court prioritizes who is best positioned to act in the person's interest.

Is a psychiatric evaluation always required?

Not always, but courts frequently order one, especially when there's any ambiguity about the degree of impairment, since it plays a significant role in deciding between full and limited guardianship.