CLOSING A GUARDIANSHIP STEP BY STEP
October 25, 2010 § 4 Comments
The time has come to close that guardianship you opened a few years back to receive a personal injury settlement on behalf of a minor ward. So how are you going to go about closing it?
MCA § 93-13-77 provides that “When the guardianship shall cease in any manner, the guardian shall make a final settlement of his guardianship, by making out and presenting to the court, under oath, his final account, which shall contain a distinct statement of all balances of his annual accounts, either as debits or credits, and also, all other charges, expenditures, and amounts received, and not contained in any previous annual account.”
The final account must include a re-cap of the previous annual accounts, and must also set out the final annual of disbursements and charges since the last account, supported by proper vouchers as required in MCA §§ 93-13-71, -73 and 91-7-277. The only exception to the requirement of proper vouchers is when the guardian is a federally regulated bank, thrift or trust company, and there is a sworn statement of an officer that the vouchers are available for inspection. What constitutes a proper voucher was the subject of a previous post that you can find here.
After the final account has been filed, it must be on file for inspection by the ward for not less than “one month,” and you must issue a summons to him or her to appear in court on a day after the one month period has expired to show cause why the final account should not be approved. If the ward does contest the account, the court will hear evidence and adjudicate whether it should be approved.
In the judgment closing the estate, the court may make an allowance to the guardian not to exceed 10% of the value of the estate, and shall order that the property of the estate be delivered to the ward and the guardian discharged.
If the ward has reached 21 years of age, the ward may petition the court under oath to waive the final account, ” … and the court shall grant the same unless there be reason to suspect that the petition was procured by the guardian through fraud or undue influence over the ward, in which case the court shall require proof of the good faith thereof.”
So when is it time to close a guardianship? You can read about that here.
The Better Chancery Practice Blog 
I turned 21 a few days ago and was wondering is it a must that I get a lawyer to close my guardianship and release my funds? I was 19 when the guardianship was established, the case is sealed, I really dont want to have to pay for a lawyer and can not afford one either. Any suggestions or input?
The law requires that you have a lawyer in a guardianship. Contact the lawyer of record in your case.
[…] THAT TERMINATE GUARDIANSHIPS We’ve already discussed how to close a guardianship, but what exactly are the events that trigger […]
[…] When closing out a guardianship, the requirements of § 93-13-77, MCA, must be satisfied. That section requires that a final accounting filed, and that the ward be summoned and given notice to be and appear before the court on a day not less than one month after the date that the summons is served or after completion of publication, to show cause why the accounting should not be approved. The accounting can not be approved earlier than one month after completion of process. All the requirements to close a guardianship are here. […]