Summary: As people age, some become incapable of managing their personal and financial affairs. To protect these people, state laws provide for court appointment of guardians to act on their behalf. In many cases federal programs provide these incapacitated people financial benefits. GAO was asked to examine: (1) what state courts do to ensure that guardians fulfill their responsibilities, (2) what guardianship programs recognized as exemplary do to ensure that guardians fulfill their responsibilities, and (3) how state courts and federal agencies work together to protect incapacitated elderly people.
All states have laws requiring courts to oversee guardianships, but court implementation varies. Most require guardians to submit periodic reports, but do not specify court review of these reports. Interstate jurisdictional issues sometimes arise when states do not recognize guardianships originating in other states. Most courts responding to our survey did not track the number of active guardianships, and few indicated the number of incapacitated elderly people under guardianship. Four courts recognized by members of the National Guardianship Network as having exemplary guardianship programs devote staff to strong programs for guardianship training and oversight. Three of these courts offer training to guardians even though state law does not require it. Three also have programs in which volunteers or social work student interns visit people under guardianship and report on their condition. Although state courts and federal agencies are responsible for protecting many of the same incapacitated elderly people, they generally work together only on a case-by-case basis. Some courts send notices of guardianship to the Department of Veterans Affairs and the Social Security Administration, but generally coordination among federal agencies and courts is not systematic. Federal agencies and courts do not systematically notify other agencies or courts when they identify someone as incapacitated, or when they discover that a guardian or a representative payee is abusing the incapacitated person. This lack of coordination may leave incapacitated people without the protection of responsible guardians and representative payees.
