Guardianship Monitoring - A Report 2006 (USA)

Guardianship Monitoring: A National Survey of Court Practices
Research Report
Naomi Karp, ABA Commission on Law and Aging
Erica F. Wood, American Bar Association
June 2006

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Guardianship is a powerful legal tool that can bring good or ill for an increasing number of vulnerable adults with cognitive impairments. Incapacitated elders are at risk of abuse, neglect and exploitation by guardians with the authority to make surrogate personal and financial decisions. To better understand how courts are monitoring the performance of guardians, AARP’s Public Policy Institute (PPI) took the first detailed look at guardianship monitoring in over fifteen years.

This report by Naomi Karp of AARP PPI and Erica Wood of the American Bar Association Commission on Law and Aging presents the results of a 2005 national survey of frontline professionals. Key findings include:

Brief Summary

CONCLUSIONS
Salient themes in the survey findings include the following:

• Guardianship monitoring practices show wide variation, as they did in a similar 1991 study.


• Reporting practices have advanced over the past 15 years in key aspects, including more frequent requirement of personal status reports, greater compliance with statutory reporting requirements, and greater use of guardianship plans.


• Verification of guardian reports and accounts, as well as visits to vulnerable individuals under guardianship, is frequently lacking.


• Use of technology in monitoring is minimal despite vast opportunities for web-based and email monitoring techniques as well as computerized data collection.


• Guardian training has increased but remains a compelling need.


• Courts and community groups rarely collaborate on guardianship monitoring.


• Funding for guardianship monitoring remains minimal.