{"id":12098,"date":"2020-10-18T07:03:03","date_gmt":"2020-10-18T12:03:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/legaltalktexas.hammerle.com\/?p=12098"},"modified":"2025-06-18T17:14:57","modified_gmt":"2025-06-18T22:14:57","slug":"what-is-a-guardianship-in-texas","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hammerle.com\/legaltalk\/adult-guardianship\/what-is-a-guardianship-in-texas\/","title":{"rendered":"Texas Guardianship Basics"},"content":{"rendered":"

Recipe for a contested guardianship: Take one senior, add a dash of dementia<\/a>, mix in a dollop of assets, simmer with decades of resentment and hurt feelings, and garnish with one or more disgruntled family members.<\/span><\/p>\n

Guaranteed to cook up into a gut-wrenching and expensive guardianship case.<\/span><\/p>\n

A guardianship<\/a> is a court proceeding that is initiated to have a person (the \u201cward\u201d) declared legally incapacitated, take away one or more of that person\u2019s rights, and have a guardian appointed.<\/span><\/p>\n

There are two types of guardianships in Texas. A \u201cguardian of the person\u201d handles personal decisions regarding the ward, such as where the ward lives and the medical care a ward receives.\u00a0 A \u201cguardian of the estate\u201d handles the ward\u2019s finances. \u00a0 The detailed scope of a guardian\u2019s duties is determined by a judge on a case- by- case basis.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

A guardianship case is initiated when someone files an application for guardianship in the appropriate court, such as a probate court.\u00a0 Ten counties in Texas have designated probate courts<\/a>. In the other 244 counties a guardianship would usually be filed in a county court.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Who can file a guardianship application?\u00a0 Anyone. That encompasses the loving adult child, the exploitive neighbor, and the local UPS driver.\u00a0 Who can contest a guardianship application? Anyone.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The only restriction is that the person filing or contesting cannot have an interest that is adverse to the proposed ward.\u00a0 The courts are still working out what constitutes an adverse interest.\u00a0 Frankly, guardianship law in Texas has undergone a mini-revolution since 2010 and there remain a few bugs in the system.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

(Now may be the time to disclose an endearing quirk.\u00a0 In Texas a court with guardianship jurisdiction can start a guardianship action on its own initiative. \u00a0 This plays out when the court becomes aware, by fair means or foul, that someone may need a guardianship.\u00a0 The court opens an investigation and then, if it deems it necessary, authorizes someone to file a guardianship action.)\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Once a guardianship application is filed, the judge appoints an attorney ad litem to represent the proposed ward.\u00a0 Of course, if the proposed ward has capacity then he or she could hire a private attorney to fight the guardianship.\u00a0 If.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

So what determines the need for a guardianship?\u00a0 The Estates Code requires that a guardianship cannot be granted unless the court finds the proposed ward is \u201can adult who, because of a physical or mental condition is 1) substantially unable to provide food, clothing or shelter for himself or herself;\u00a0 2) care for the person\u2019s own physical health; or 3) manage the person\u2019s own financial affairs. \u00a0 The court must also find that there are no lesser restrictive alternatives, like a power of attorney or a trust, available to the proposed ward.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Some cases go smoothly with everyone working in the best interest of the ward.\u00a0 Other cases, however, turn into a pitched battle over capacity, adverse interests, guardian qualifications or less restrictive alternatives.\u00a0 These are contested guardianships and may include allegations of theft, exploitation, neglect and abuse of the proposed ward.\u00a0 The Judge may just remove the ward from the home and appoint independent guardians.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

That is the stuff of which nightmares are made.<\/span><\/p>\n

Virginia Hammerle<\/a>\u00a0is a Texas attorney whose practice includes\u00a0estate planning<\/a>,\u00a0guardianship<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0probate<\/a>. Sign up for her newsletter at\u00a0legaltalk@hammerle.com<\/a>. Contact Hammerle Morris Law Firm to schedule a consultation at hammerle.com<\/a>.<\/i><\/p>\n

This column does not constitute legal advice.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Recipe for a contested guardianship: Take one senior, add a dash of dementia, mix in a dollop of assets, simmer with decades of resentment and hurt feelings, and garnish with one or more disgruntled family members. Guaranteed to cook up into a gut-wrenching and expensive guardianship case. A guardianship is a court proceeding that is […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":12099,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[1226],"tags":[1060],"class_list":{"0":"post-12098","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-adult-guardianship","8":"tag-elder-law"},"yoast_head":"\nTexas Guardianship Basics | Hammerle<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"A guardianship is a court proceeding that is initiated to have a person, take away one or more of that person\u2019s rights, and have a guardian appointed.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/hammerle.com\/legaltalk\/adult-guardianship\/what-is-a-guardianship-in-texas\/\" \/>\n<meta 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