Michigan Guardianship vs Conservatorship

Two Separate Legal Roles, Two Separate Court Orders

Michigan law draws a hard line between guardianship and conservatorship — they control different domains, carry different duties, and require separate petitions and filings.

Guardian = authority over the person. A guardian makes decisions about where the individual lives, what medical treatment they receive, what services and therapies they access, and how they spend their daily life. The guardian does not control money.

Conservator = authority over the estate (property and finances). A conservator manages the individual's bank accounts, pays bills, handles tax filings, manages investments, and oversees estate income, subject to separate federal rules for Social Security benefits. The conservator has no authority over personal or medical decisions.

These are not interchangeable. A court order appointing someone as guardian does not grant financial authority. A conservatorship order does not authorize medical decisions. If a family needs both, they must file separate petitions — and pay separate filing fees.

Cost Differences

For families filing under the Developmental Disability (DD) track through the Mental Health Code:

• Guardianship petition (PC 658): $0 filing fee
• Conservatorship petition: Separate petition with its own filing fee

For the Legally Incapacitated Individual (LII) track under EPIC:

• Guardianship petition (PC 625): $175
• Conservatorship petition: $175
• Both filed together: $350

Fee waiver: Form MC 20 covers both petitions if the petitioner demonstrates financial hardship.

Ongoing Reporting Obligations

This is where the practical burden of each appointment diverges significantly:

Guardians file an annual report on the ward's condition:

• Form PC 634 (for LII wards) or Form PC 663 (for DD wards)
• Due within 56 days of the anniversary of appointment
• Content: the ward's current living situation, medical condition, services received, and the guardian's assessment of whether the current level of restriction remains appropriate

Conservators file an annual financial account:

• Form PC 584 (Annual Account of Fiduciary)
• $20 filing fee per annual account
• Content: a complete accounting of all income received, expenditures made, assets held, and liabilities outstanding
• The court reviews these accounts for mismanagement, and Disability Rights Michigan conducts audits to detect benefit misuse

The conservator's reporting burden is substantially heavier. The annual accounting must be detailed enough to survive judicial scrutiny, and errors or omissions trigger investigation. For families managing only SSI benefits (currently $994/month for an individual in 2026), the administrative cost and complexity of a conservatorship can be disproportionate to the assets being managed.

When a Conservatorship Is — and Isn't — Justified

Consider a conservatorship when:

• The individual owns or will inherit significant assets (property, investments, insurance proceeds, structured settlements)
• The individual receives income from multiple sources that require coordinated management
• A Special Needs Trust needs to be established or the individual's assets must be restructured to preserve government benefit eligibility

Skip the conservatorship when:

• The individual's sole income is SSI. The Representative Payee program through the Social Security Administration provides targeted financial management authority at zero cost, with no court involvement, no annual filing fees, and no fiduciary bond. The SSA doesn't recognize state court conservatorship orders as automatic authority over benefits anyway — a separate application is required regardless.
• The individual has minimal assets that can be managed through a Durable Financial Power of Attorney executed voluntarily

A conservatorship carries not just the annual accounting burden, but also potential requirements for a fiduciary bond (an insurance policy protecting the ward's assets from mismanagement, paid for out of the ward's estate) and professional fees if the court requires an independent review of the accounts. These costs can compound to $10,000–$15,000 per year, rapidly depleting the estate they're designed to protect.

The Representative Payee Alternative

For families whose primary financial concern is managing SSI or Social Security benefits, the Representative Payee program is almost always the better tool:

• Free to apply for through the Social Security Administration
• No court order required
• Covers benefit receipt, spending, and accounting
• Subject to federal compliance reviews rather than state court reporting
• Does not affect the individual's other financial rights — they can still hold a bank account, sign a lease, or make purchases with non-benefit funds

The payee's authority is narrow by design: it covers only the Social Security benefits, not the individual's broader financial life. For many young adults with disabilities whose sole income is SSI, this narrow scope covers 100% of what the family needs without the overhead of a court-supervised conservatorship.

The Michigan Adult Guardianship & Alternatives Guide includes a decision worksheet that helps families determine whether they need guardianship, conservatorship, both, or neither — mapping specific functional vulnerabilities to the least restrictive tool that addresses each one.

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